Dear Agony
by Kouga's Eternal
Summary: When a betrayal cuts deep enough, when you shatter because of someone else, can you ever truly put yourself back together? Or, is that betrayal exactly what is needed to finally become whole? When a desperate move by Inuyasha to remove the choice between Kagome and Kikyo doesn't go as planned, Kagome is the one left to suffer and sort out the consequences.
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah... I know. I have two 'on hiatus' Kouga stories already, and two incomplete Bankotsu stories that aren't updated regularly, but here's the thing. My docs make me sad. I have hundreds of thousands of words written on started and stopped story ideas that never became full stories because I kept getting new ideas, and would write them down, then move on to the next, then the next, and then the next, and next thing I know, there are 37 stories in my Kouga folder, and five in the Bankotsu folder with a list of ideas for him that I refuse to acknowledge because of all the other WIPs, and... yeah, it makes me sad. This one already stands at over 20,000 words, and 9 chapters. I like it. I'm going to post it. I'm also going to continue the Bankotsu stories, and I'm eventually going to get back to** ** _Tied_** **and** ** _The Contract_** **.**

 **For now... well... My name IS Kouga's Eternal for a reason *winks***

 **Enjoy!  
Kouga's Eternal**

 ***X***

"Inuyasha!"

Kagome stood there in a state of shock, unable to comprehend what her eyes were seeing. The fuck? She could sense the piece of her soul nearing them as well as the inu hanyou could smell the scent that went with it, but for the Gods, they were in the middle of a fight with a fucking shard enhanced... something. It was so distorted by the jewel Kagome wasn't even sure what it was, but she didn't really need to. All she had to know was it was big, it was mean, and it didn't seem to want to die.

She was so stunned, she didn't have enough reaction time to dive out of the way of an arm heading her way, and she only survived because the others with her were far less shocked at the turn of events than she was, and Sango was on it with her boomerang.

Leaping from Kirara's back, the slayer landed in front of the shell shocked Miko, and took up a defensive position until Kagome could once again regain her bearings. Sango, though wishing she was as surprised as Kagome was over Inuyasha bailing, she wasn't. She wasn't even slightly surprised by it. From her vantage point in the air, she had seen the eel demon soul collectors in the trees, and knowing the hanyou as well as she did, when he turned tail and bolted in the direction they were in, Sango sadly saw it coming.

This was becoming a regular thing with Inuyasha. It no longer mattered what the group as a whole was doing, either. As soon as the feeling of their demonic aura caressed Inuyasha's senses, he was gone. More than once both she and Miroku had woken and found themselves down a hanyou, and had since taken to shift sleeping so they wouldn't be caught off guard if someone happened on their campsite while everyone was unaware.

The two had agreed it was better not to tell Kagome about that, but at the look on the miko's face at the abandonment, Sango questioned herself on whether that was the right way to go. If she knew Inuyasha was sneaking away more than she knew, maybe she wouldn't look so heartbroken right now.

However, that was certainly something to ponder on at a later time. At the moment, there was something far more important to do. Readying her hiraikotsu, she spoke to the miko at her back. "Kagome! Snap out of it and get ready."

The miko jumped, almost like she was slammed back into her body when she heard Sango's voice. Heaving a sigh, she returned her attention to the bug youkai, and searched its body for the shine of the jewel shard. Knocking an arrow when she found it, she pour every ounce of her emotions into summoning her riki, knowing she was going to have to have one hell of a power surge to take this thing out without the help of Inuyasha.

Squaring her stance, she locked her eyes on the glow of the Shikon and pulled the bowstring as tight as she could. All she could do was pray there was enough speed and force to pierce the armor of the insect and hit the shard. When she let go of the feather, she called out as she always did.

"Hit the mark!"

All five of the remaining shard hunters watched as the arrow flew through the air, Kagome grabbing another from her quiver just in case. But, she put so much into that last arrow, she felt drained, so she wasn't sure she could do that again. It was so much easier when the stupid demons were shredded by the wind scar and all she had to do was pick the shard out of a pile of entrails or something.

Notching the next arrow, Kagome made ready to fire it when the first one made contact with the stomach of the bug. She only had enough time for her eyes to widen before the immense amount of hold energy literally made the thing explode, the backlash knocking both her and Sango off their feet and sending Kirara higher into the sky to avoid the very painful purification powers.

Landing with a grunt, Kagome caught Sango before she could completely land on top of her. Breathing hard and deep, the miko looked at the shattered body parts with wide eyes as they slid around clearing they were in. There were intestine hanging from tree branches, legs scattered all over the ground. There were blood pools forming and the thick smell of burnt flesh taking over the area, making her eyes water and throat burn. When she looked at herself, there was pieces of entrails and splatters of blood on both her and Sango.

Sango, once she recovered slightly, also looked around, her own eyes owlish size. "Whoa, Kagome." Looking back over her shoulder at the stunned Miko. "Where did that come from?"

Kagome just shook her head as she slid her body out from under the slayer and climbed to her feet. "I don't know." Looking up in the air, she cringed when she saw both Kirara and Shippo looking a little green. "Are they alright, Miroku?"

The monk frowned, but nodded. "I think so, but I do not think it wise for them to linger around so much holy energy."

Sango called up to him then. "Do you see a river, or spring, or anything from where you are?"

Looking around above the treetops, Miroku pointed to the East. "Looks to be a small lake about two miles from here. I'll take Kirara and Shippo and meet you at the fork that's about a mile straight that way. I do not think it will be good for either of them to be on the ground any closer than that."

After agreeing and Miroku flying off and out of sight through the leaves, Sango sighed and looked at Kagome, who was busy trying to pull a piece of bug out of her hair. "Should we wait for Inuyasha?"

Pausing in her attempt to free her hair from a very stubborn piece of nasty, Kagome looked at her best friend. "Why? So he can tell us how disgusting we smell while making cracks about how his precious Kikyo wouldn't have made such a mess of herself? Yeah, no thanks. He'll find us. He always does."

Slightly taken aback at the bitterness in Kagome's voice, all Sango did was nod and shoulder her hiraikotsu. She had to agree, she made a valid point. No matter how well Kagome did, or much better she was getting at summoning and controlling her powers, Inuyasha always had something negative to say about it and always belittled the amazing amount of progress the little miko had make by comparing it to Kikyo.

In just a few short years, Kagome had learned much of what other priestesses took a lifetime to learn, and that was something to be praised, not bashed. However, when it came to something that Kagome and Kikyo had in common, nothing Kagome ever did was good enough.

Once Kagome picked up the two shards of the jewel that the now very dead bug had possession of and put them in the jar with the others, the miko grabbed her pack and the two girls set out into the trees, taking the faster path to meet up with Miroku, Kirara, and Shippo, not knowing, or really even caring, where Inuyasha was or when he would also be joining back up with them.


	2. Chapter 2

On the other side of a patch of bushes, Miroku sat with his back to the lake where both girls and both demons were, his arms crossed as he stared into the fire he built to help dry the ladies clothes after they were scrubbed free of the bug blood. While he was, of course, painfully aware of their current state of undress, for once there was something more important on his mind than a peep show.

That was, of course, Inuyasha.

Like the others, he was having a very hard time understanding why his thick headed friend would have just bailed like that in the middle of a fight. What was more, it was right when Kagome needed his help he left. Miroku knew it wasn't the first time he left the living miko to her own devices in her time of need, but it was the first time it was an active choice to leave her fate to the Kami.

All the other times, it was after he was already gone that the attack and attempt to take Kagome's shards came, but this was different. They were in the middle of battle and he just up and left, knowing he was needed, and just not caring. The monk considered the benefit of the doubt, that there might be a reason Inuyasha bolted like he did, but nothing he came up with made sense. Could the hanyou have been bewitched somehow in a way that neither he nor Kagome could sense? Had he just flat out finally lost his damn mind? That the monk didn't know, but he knew he was going to have to get to the bottom of this before it happened again, and ended in a much less favorable way.

On the heels of that thought, came more focus on the sheer amount of power Kagome had unleashed. In the years they had been traveling together, Miroku could sense the girl was powerful, but never could he have guessed she held that much spiritual energy inside her. It was massive, and he had never heard of any holy being holding that much before; not even Kikyo, and she was supposed to have been the most powerful priestess to ever live beside the one that created the Shikon no Tama.

Miroku could in no way discount the power the resurrected miko had, even still after having died. The thing was, Kagome was her reincarnation, which gave Kagome Kikyo's power, and Kikyo only had riki at all because she had retained a small piece of Kagome's soul when she was brought back from the dead. The only real difference between the two was Kikyo knew how to use it, and Kagome was learning as she went. Kikyo could do great things with the small amount she had because she had trained her whole life to do so, and Kagome only had a couple of years under her belt. Miroku was positive that had Kagome had the time to really focus and really learn to wield the power within her, Kagome would be all but unstoppable when it came to this fight with Naraku. Hell, he would even go out on a limb and say she would be able to vanquish the bastard on her own if she knew what she was doing.

Sighing and leaning back, Miroku scratched his brow as he listened into the sounds behind him, making sure the girls were alright before diving back into his thoughts, this time once again focusing on the hanyou.

Kagome was gonna kill him. Maybe she wouldn't, but she would be well within her rights to zap him a bit for what he did. One thing he was absolutely positive about was the inu was gonna be picking dirt and grass out of his teeth for weeks. A small grin and quiet chuckle, Miroku shook his head. Kagome had stopped using the beads around his neck months ago when she was upset, saying it made her feel bad to have so much power of him and vowed to not say the dreaded word unless it was in a life or death situation. In this sense, Miroku could argue it was indeed that, because if Kagome didn't deal out some kind of punishment, Sango would, and she cared far less about having power over someone than Kagome did.

In the water, the miko in question was actually quite subdued. She said nothing as she continued to clean Shippo's fur of the dirt and dust that held trace amounts of holy energy. Her eyes were distant as she replayed the scene of Inuyasha running away over and over in her mind. She was present enough to respond to Shippo and Sango if they said something that required her to, but other than that, she was running a loop in her mind with no end in sight.

It wasn't just that he left her like he did, or even when he did. It was that on top of him still not meeting back up with them. Normally when he bolted to see Kikyo he would only be gone a short time, hoping to return before anyone really noticed how long he had been gone. Why was this time any different? Was it because he knew they knew where he was and who he was with so it didn't matter he had been gone so long? Was it he finally made his choice between her and Kikyo? Kagome wasn't stupid. She knew the time for that was coming. In all honesty, she just wanted it over.

She wanted it all over.

In truth, you could say he already had chosen who he really wanted. It was pretty clear, actually, especially after today. How could anyone say it wasn't? He _left_ her, to go be with Kikyo, in the middle of a fight with a bug that could have easily killed all of them. Kagome knew her other friends thought she didn't know, but she was achingly aware of Inuyasha's absence from camp on a regular basis. Did they so easily forget the walking funeral urn carried a part of her soul, and she could _feel_ when it was close? She didn't need to see the demon eels to know Kikyo was close. If she was within a mile or so, Kagome knew it.

Quite a few times Kagome had had the thought to pull her soul back when she knew Kikyo was too weak to hold onto it, but that never sat well for long and the thought always made her stomach roll and heart clench. She didn't want to get a man that way. She wanted one that wanted her, and not only settle because there wasn't another option. She had also considered a few other things, like Inuyasha only tolerating her because she looked like Kikyo, and that maybe her own feelings for the inu hanyou were because of the fact she had the soul of his lost love.

That hardly seemed fair, though.

Her heart should be hers to give away, or take back, as she saw fit. She shouldn't have feelings for someone just because at one point a part of her loved that person. Hojo was a perfect example of this. He was a very nice boy, and he cared about her; not because he had to due to a past he couldn't let go of, but because he actually liked her. She couldn't bring herself to like him, though, and she never understood why. He was perfect for her in so many ways, but he never seemed like enough after she met Inuyasha. Then again, that could have more to do with the fact she knew Hojo's ancestor, and less because of Inuyasha. The jury was still out on that one.

And, then there was Kouga. Now, he was nearly the whole package. Overlooking the fact the wolf prince was fucking gorgeous, he all but showered her with attention and affection every time they crossed paths, going nearly out of his way to show he cared without stepping too much on her toes. He had no past tie to her, and he still wanted her. When she was around, he acted like there was no one else there. He showed up at just the right time, he put himself in danger to protect her, and he did it all because he wanted to, not because she had a passing resemblance to someone else. She knew a lot of what he did was to piss off Inuyasha, but she actually found it endearing. However, again, she couldn't bring herself to appreciate it, though she actually wanted to. Instead, the majority of her bulked at it, not liking anything the ookami did for her.

Rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands, she sighed hard and looked to the bright blue sky at the clouds that lazily drifted in the soft breeze. This was stupid. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. She didn't know why that was, but she knew that much. So long as a livingish Kikyo walked the Earth, Kagome knew she would always come second. She would always be the stand in.

She would never be the one Inuyasha really wanted.

When she felt eyes on her, Kagome lifted her head, giving a smile to Sango, but said nothing. She didn't want to talk about it. She knew it wouldn't do anything but piss her off, and she was done getting upset over the actions of Inuyasha. She had been saying for how long she wasn't Kikyo? That she was her own person? It was time she finally showed the hanyou she wasn't lying about that. When, or maybe even if, he showed back up, Kagome had every intention of having a serious chat with him and making sure he knew where she stood.

She was making the choice for him. She was done being the stand in. She was done coming second to walking flower pot. She was just done. After today, she was no longer going to tolerate the way he treated her, or the way he acted towards her because he thought she didn't know, or the way he compared her to the dead bitch.

She would do what she said she would and get the jewel back together, but she didn't care what he did anymore, or with who.

The girls stayed in the water until Miroku informed them their clothes were dry enough to put on and, once they were dressed, they set out again. None of them really cared where they were heading at the moment. They had to wait for Inuyasha to appear anyways, so they decided to just head for the next village. If they were going to be without him for the quickly approaching night, they all agreed it was better to be within a village than out in the woods.


	3. Chapter 3

Three humans and two small demons stood with blank looks and varying degrees of irritation on their faces the next morning when Inuyasha finally resurfaced. It wasn't only because he was gone all night they were annoyed, it was because when he showed back up, he wasn't alone.

Kagome's eyes were locked on the eyes of her past self, as Kikyo was staring down her reincarnation. Neither one of them knew exactly what to say to the other version of herself, because neither one of them were prepared to see the other. Kikyo was under the impression the monk and slayer had taken Kagome home after Inuyasha abandoned them the afternoon before, and Kagome didn't think Inuyasha was so incredibly heartless as to actually bring the corpse with him when he decided it was time to meet back up with the group.

There was a beyond uncomfortable fizzle in the air as both mikos' auras began to flare, a display of power neither one was fully aware they were engaging in. Neither one broke eye contact, the game being to get the other to back down first. Kagome never thought she would be put in a battle of wills with Kikyo, and likewise, Kikyo didn't think her reincarnation had the gull to stand her ground against her.

Eyes narrowing, Kagome was the first to break eye contact, but it was no way in defeat. Her eyes slid and locked on Inuyasha's, every emotion he never wanted to see swirling in the depths. He cringed slightly, waiting for the coming demand, and preparing for the faceplant he was positive was coming his way.

This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to have gone home, pissed off and upset he left her alone to go to Kikyo. She wasn't supposed to have stayed. Had he known she was still in the past, he wouldn't have had Kikyo seal the powers of the well and closing it off, making sure Kagome couldn't come back to the past. Now what the fuck was he gonna do? He came up with the plan to banish Kagome at home so he wouldn't have to choose between her and Kikyo, and now she was stuck on this side of the well with no way to get back.

Kagome was going to kill him.

Miroku looked back and forth between the mikos, but from the corner of his eye, he watched Inuyasha, and knew there was something more to this than just shoving Kikyo in Kagome's face. Deciding to try and stop the coming explosion of holy power, he took a step between the two mikos, cutting off the line of sight between them. His head held high, the monk nodded with a 'Lady Kikyo', before turning his sights on the hanyou. "Inuyasha?"

The aforementioned hanyou was still stuck on the same loop of 'what the fuck'? He had no defense for this. There was no way out of this. Still, because he knew there was no way out of it, and he had to come clean about what he did, he wouldn't be him if he didn't make the situation worse, first.

He looked at Kagome with fire in his eyes, his voice was already loud when he spoke. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Kagome bulked, and her aura flared with the action. "I beg your pardon? What do you think I'm doing here? Waiting for you, you baka!"

Growling at her, feeling somewhat justified now that she called him a name, Inuyasha barked at her. "NO! You were supposed to run home like you always do when you're pissed off at me. You were supposed to be on the other side of the well, not here."

Having a feeling she was about to purify the demon half of Inuyasha, her face went flat and her voice went hollow. "Why?" Eyes narrowing further, the corner of her lip curled and there was a rather impressive growl from her throat. "What did you do?"

Kikyo then decided to again make her presence known, and in nearly a sneer, answered the miko who now had nowhere to go. "I sealed the well."

Those four little words all but dropped the Miko from the future to her knees. Sealed? The well was sealed? She was... She shook her head, refusing to let that thought finish and turned disbelieving eyes on Kikyo. "Sealed?" Looking at Inuyasha, her temper flared and her voice rose with every word. "You had her SEAL the well? INUYASHA! What the hell!?" He went to open his mouth, but she opened hers first with a stomp of her foot. "SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT! You mother fucker, SIIIIIIT!"

Everyone within earshot turned and watched as Inuyasha was driven into the ground, the beads around his neck pulling him deeper and deeper into a hole everyone present agreed he deserved. However, when she cursed, all eyes turned to her because that was one thing she didn't do, no matter how angry she got, and she certainly never cursed at Inuyasha. There were tears streaming down her face, but she was nothing but a ball of anger. Her aura glowed around her, growing larger with every breath she took. Eyes were darting every which way, someone looking for someone else to step in before she lost her temper completely and purified every demon in the area. Kagome was clearly trying to get the necklace to decapitate the hanyou and for once, didn't seem to care about any lasting effects of her anger.

She couldn't believe he would do something like this. Seal the well? No matter which side of the well she would have been on, it was a stupid fucking idea. If she went home right then, she would have had shards of the jewel, making completing the Shikon impossible if she was unable to come back, but instead of things going like he wanted them too, she was now stuck 500 years in the past, and would never see her family again.

Pissed off wasn't even in the same realm of emotion she was feeling at the moment.

She gave Inuyasha enough slack to get out of his hole, but once again screamed out the dreaded word once more with just as much vigor, driving him right back into the dirt. Stalking over to the hole he made in the ground, she glared down at him, her eyes nearly shut they were narrowed so much. "Why? Why would you do that? Why would have her seal the well?"

Inuyasha groaned loud at the pain in his face, but knew he had to answer her, even though he also knew she was going to say it again. "So I didn't have to choose."

Back going ramrod straight, all feeling at all left Kagome's body as she looked down at him. Completely deflated, she whimpered. "You didn't have to." Covering her mouth to again cover the noise that threatened to come out, she shook her head as she backed away from the crater. She was trapped. She could never go home. She would never see her family again. What would they think happened to her when she didn't come back? Would they think she died? That she just chose not to return? Squeezing her eyes shut, she let out a morose breath before she pivoted on point and ran, grabbing her bag without stopping and ignored the calls of her name.

Shippo watched after her for a moment before he turned a glare on the hanyou and, using one of his tricks, dropped a stone statue on the baka before tearing ass after his mother figure. The spell would last a good while before it faded and let Inuyasha get up, and he would make sure Kagome was good and far away before then. He didn't know what all was just stolen from her by Inuyasha's desperate move, but he knew it was a lot and, though he also knew no one could really replace family, he vowed he would make sure she had the best life he could make for her.

Sango sent Kirara after the miko as well before she turned her blazing eyes on the still grounded Hanyou. Oh, she was pissed. Beyond it, actually. The slayer was livid. She stomped towards the hole, but was stopped by Miroku, for reasons unknown. Casting a glare at the monk, she turned back to the hole. "I hope you're happy, Inuyasha. Did it ever occur to you this might happen? That you could have done this?"

Kikyo, once again speaking up on Inuyasha's behalf, only made it worse. "He did it to protect her."

Snapping her attention to the dead miko, Sango ground her teeth together. "You don't want to talk to me. Besides, he said it was so he didn't have to chose, not to protect her. Did he even check to make SURE she was on the other side? No? Didn't fucking think so. Now, shut up before I send you back to Hell where you belong." Returning her attention to the still grounded hanyou, she snarled out. "You've really done it this time, Inuyasha. You've literally destroyed someone who cared about you, all so you could be free to fuck a corpse? I had no idea the dried out pussy of a dead body was so fucking amazing it was literally worth everything. You're the most disgusting creature on the planet, Inuyasha, and that includes Naraku!"

Miroku couldn't even form anything to say. All he could was shake his head and turn to follow after Sango as she went after Kagome. He did pause before he was too far away, looking back over his shoulder at the dead miko who was now crouched next to the hole the hanyou had dug. His voice was as level as it always was. "I believe it had been Kagome's intent to release you from your promise, Inuyasha. There was no need for such extreme measures to be taken. As it stands, I am curious what you would have done had she returned home with the shards she carries and you sealed the well. There would be no end to Naraku because of your brash actions."

As he turned to follow after the girls, he called back over his shoulder. "I suppose congratulations are in order as well. I wish you happy times in your future together."

Kikyo looked after the monk before looking down at her shoulder, seeing the edge of the mark that laid there. She hadn't thought anyone saw it, but it appears she was wrong. Returning her attention to Inuyasha, she sat down on the ground and just waited. Once the spell the fox cast wore off, there was going to have to be a little chat between her and her mate as she tried to figure out if she was going to be able to remove the beads from his neck.


	4. Chapter 4

Kagome didn't stop running, not even when her legs burned and begged her for a break. She had veered off the path and into the trees at some point, wanting to have a few minutes to collect herself before she was bombarded with questions and sympathy from her friends. Right now, she didn't want it. All she wanted in this moment was to be alone and absorb what happened and try to start coming to terms with it.

What a joke of a thought.

There was no coming to terms with this. There was no way to ever be alright with this. When she first started this going back and forth through time thing, she had always had the ending expectation that she would go home to her own time when her job was done and the jewel was whole. Now, because of Inuyasha and Kikyo, she would never be able to go home again. There had been a fleeting thought that maybe she could undo the seal over the well like she had broken Kikyo's spell that bound Inuyasha to the tree, but she had dismissed it. She had had it proven that she couldn't undo anything Kikyo had done since her return more than once, and she didn't think she could take it if it didn't work.

Plus, she didn't know what was done to seal it, so it wouldn't be possible to undo it anyway, and knowing the bitch like she did, Kagome doubted very much the corpse would undo it, even if she said please.

Coming to a break in the trees, though not really a full clearing, Kagome's legs finally said enough and gave out, the miko dropping to the ground. Though she caught herself, she didn't fully stop her descent, and instead tucked her head, curled into a ball on her knees, and cried into the grass, her hands covering her head. Were she honest, she didn't care what decided she was easy pickins at that point. She knew she had shards on her, and she knew something would come after her for them, she just couldn't bring herself to give a shit. At least if she actually died it would make what her family thought true and they wouldn't think she abandoned them.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed like that, but she knew Shippo and Kirara were close. She could feel them. But, she was beyond grateful they left her alone. She still wasn't fully ready to face them or their eyes just yet. She wasn't sure what she would see, but she was pretty convinced there were would be pity and she knew she couldn't handle that, not right now.

When her blubbering tears slowed to whimpers and sniffles, she continued to stay in her position, deciding a few more minutes wouldn't be the end of the world. However, that choice was taken from her when there was a loud crash from outside the tree line, making her shoot up to her knees and look around. Seriously? She may have thought dying wasn't the worst thing ever right at the moment, but that in no way meant she fucking meant it.

She scrambled for her bow and Shippo and Kirara, who was transformed into her larger size, came running to her side, but none of them were fast enough to their goals.

Kagome closed her eyes, waiting for the pain of whatever it was that was coming for her, but whipped back around when there was a snarled growl behind her. Her eyes were squinted, her hair whipping around in the massive current created when Kouga showed up in the tree break. She watched with tears back in her eyes as the wolf wrestled with the biggest boar she had ever seen in her life. She had to have been really down and out not to sense his shards as he got close. She glanced over the body of the boar looking for a jewel shard, but was surprised to find out it didn't have one. It was just that fucking big.

It didn't take Kouga but a couple of minutes to kill the boar, but he wasn't exactly clean about it, nor did he take the care needed to avoid the animal's tusks. He had been caught in the side and tossed in the air, but he wasn't really hurt, though. Being it was just a regular boar, it didn't have the gusto as it's demoic counterpart, so really, it just pissed him off. Pulling the very rarely used steel from his hip, he twirled it in his hand before he dropped down and plunged the tip of the blade into the top of the boar's head.

Sniffing at it, Kouga then put his foot on the thing's head and ripped the sword free, swinging it hard out to the side to remove the blood before sliding it back into place. Glaring at what was now dinner, he growled quietly. "Asshole." Shaking his head, he walked towards his woman and smiled wide, not registering her very sour mood. "Hey there, Kagome."

Shaking in her spot until she was sure he was alright, the tears in her eyes overflowed and ran rivers down her cheeks as she scrambled to her feet and threw herself at him, startling the wolf, but not caring as she tucked herself into his chest with a loud, choked whimper.

Having no idea what the hell was going on, Kouga tightly wrapped his arms around the crying woman against his chest. Looking down at the top of her head as she bawled her eyes out in his hold, he was for once at a loss for words. Still, she wasn't crying when he showed up, so he started there. "Hey, none of that. It's just a flesh wound and will be gone in a hour, tops. No need to cry."

All that did was seem to upset her more.

Rubbing her back, the very confused ookami looked to the smaller demons present, giving them a look that clearly asked what the fuck the problem was.

Shippo looked at Kirara before he looked at the Demon Lord in front of him. It wasn't really common knowledge, Kouga not caring all that much for the title, but he was this region's Lord and Shippo knew it. They hardly ever ran into him in his own territory, so Shippo wasn't sure how to address him at first, but finally decided to forgo any type of formalities until told otherwise, and instead just told him what happened as he knew it. "Inuyasha did something really terrible."

Kouga just snorted, not really all that surprised. Resigning himself to diplomacy, he nodded once to the kit before looking back down at his miko. "It's okay, Kagome. We'll fix it. What did the mutt do this time?" For all the things he expected, her breaking down more wasn't among them. Honestly, he didn't think she could have gotten more upset. All he could really do at that point was slowly lower both of them to the ground when her legs gave out from under her. A soft growl kicking up in his chest, he rubbed her back as he returned his eyes to the kit. "What the fuck did he do?" He was never very good at diplomacy.

Now was the time that Shippo got nervous. Kouga didn't know about the well, or that Kagome was from a different time. But, under the blue and red swirling eyes of the much stronger demon in front of him, that fact didn't really matter anymore. Shippo answered him, telling Kouga about the well and the portal between her time and theirs. He concluded by telling the wolf prince why Kagome was so upset, and the terrible thing Inuyasha did, was he had Kikyo seal the well, trapping Kagome on their side and making it impossible for her to ever go home to her family again.

Kouga listened to the fox with full attention, not interrupting for any reason. It was quite the story, but with the reaction of the miko in his arms, and the fact there had always been something otherworldly about her, he didn't question the truth of it. Instead, he took it at face value. Having the sinking feeling there was nothing that could be done, all the wolf did was tighten his hold on her and hoped she calmed down soon so he could talk to _her_. Outside of that, he wasn't sure what else to do in that particular moment in time.

Quietly, Shippo told Kirara to go find Sango and Miroku. They were a pretty fair distance off the path and he wasn't sure they would be able to find them on their own. Once the neko was off to do that, Shippo slowly made his way over to the demon lord and Miko, being careful not to make too much noise. He had never seen Kagome so upset, and he didn't want to accidentally make it worse by doing something, no matter how small. Sitting back on his hunches when he was next to them, he lightly sat a hand on Kagome's leg, just to let her know he was there, too.

Kouga just continued to rub Kagome's back and raked his claws lightly against her scalp. It was the best he could do at the moment, but it never failed to calm down other upset females of his tribe. Though he was very aware she was human and not a wolf, he figured the same premise would work with her as well.

He was right to a point. By the time her human companions showed up, Kouga had calmed her down considerably, though mostly, between her crying and his actions, she was basically just put to sleep. Shifting his position slowly so as to not wake her up, he repositioned her in his arms so he could pick her up. Standing to his full height, he jerked his head to the side, silently telling the humans to follow him before he tore out of the clearing, leaving the humans to scramble onto Kirara's back and catch up.

For as fast as he was moving, and the fact he was in a rather thick forest, his movements were smooth and undisruptive to the sleeping human in his arms. He knew his territory inside and out, and knew that particular area was damn near overrun with all manner of demons and large animals, so he wanted to have this conversation in a better place they were less likely to be interrupted by something looking for dinner.

Kirara played hell keeping up to the wolf as he ducked, dodged, and hurtled different obstacles in his path. The humans on her back were quietly talking to each other about what Kouga was going to do. He looked beyond words pissed off and, and when Shippo told them he told Kouga what happened, they knew this wasn't going to be pretty. Neither human blamed the fox, though. Demonic standing dictated that when asked a point blank question like Shippo was by the Cardinal Lord of the region, he couldn't ignore it. It was no different than a direct order, and something else Shippo wouldn't have been able to refuse.

Miroku had been shocked when he was enlightened to Kouga's real position, and not just being the leader of one small tribe of wolves. He could see it though. Kouga had a natural leadership quality to him, so though he had been surprised, it hadn't lasted long. The questions he had were more about what the wolf prince was going to do when he got his hands on Inuyasha. Kagome had already given it to him pretty good, and the monk was sure the hanyou had learned his lesson. But this was Kouga, the other demon that had been vying for the affection of Kagome, and was seriously protective of the Miko. For her to literally fall apart in the ookami's arms, this spelled nothing good for the Inu. Also, as for as he knew, he was the only one that saw the mark on Kikyo's shoulder, so for the time being, he decided to keep it to himself.

Sango too was a little worried about what Kouga had planned for the baka. She was almost on the same page as Miroku, but she thought Kagome could have said sit a few more times before she took off. She was far more pissed off at the dead miko than she was the hanyou. Seriously, how could you do something so horrible without first making sure things were as they were supposed to be before actually doing it? She blamed Kikyo, wholly and fully.

Shippo was just as quiet as he could be. He had nothing to say on the topic at hand, not really knowing what to do about it himself. He would actually admit he hoped the wolf killed the idiot. It wasn't like he didn't deserve it. How anyone could be so selfish was beyond the kit. He tried to seal the well with Kagome on the other side all so he didn't have to choose between her and a dead woman, then went and mucked it up by not making sure she was on the other side before he had it sealed in a way that couldn't be undone. Under his breath, Shippo growled and crossed his arms. Inuyasha was nothing but a baka and he deserved whatever this Karma thing Kagome told him about threw at him.

Kouga didn't even pay any mind to the group behind him, his mind working in overdrive. He had never had any hopes for the mutt, but he didn't think it would ever come to this, that the fucker would actually banish someone from their home, knowing what that felt like. Sure, Kagome wasn't a child, but she certainly wouldn't have the tool necessary to live for good in a time not her own.

This was certainly going to cause all kinds of problems with this thing with Naraku, and with her mental anguish at the level he could feel in her aura as she slept, she would be easy pray for one of his mind games. Naraku could cause a serious mind fuck when someone was in top form, but how much more damage could be done when the person he went after was down and out like this?

Well, there was one thing the wolf was certain of. He wasn't gonna let that happen. If the stupid bastard wanted to be a fucker, Kouga would take no issue with taking over Kagome's protection and, if they ever run into the mutt, Kouga was going to relieve him of his head. He had only ever been playing around when they went at it in the past, but the time for playing was over. Had Inuyasha succeeded in what he attempted to do, Kagome would have likely been stolen from him forever, which Kouga took as a personal slight against him, and he wouldn't fucking have it.

As he ran, he had thought briefly of where to go, but decided to go the distance and return to the den. It wasn't that far off, only about another ten miles from where they were, and if he was gonna have a rather loud conversation with the slayer and the monk, he wanted Kagome to have a safe, quiet place to sleep off this round of upset before the next one started.


	5. Chapter 5

There was a flurry of activity when Kouga showed up at the den with a human they all recognized from her last appearance, followed swiftly by the slayer and monk. The actual wolf cubs, as well as the children of the tribe, were jumping up at Kouga, yips and laughter sounding off the cliffs and bringing a small smile to the prince's lips. With nothing more than an 'enough', the smaller members of the tribe were off again, running around the side of the mountains like there wasn't a care in the world.

Before he entered the cave, he told the other humans to wait where they were before carrying Kagome inside and laid her down on his bed. Curling his tongue behind his teeth, he blew one sharp, short whistle, calling the older wolves to his presence. He told them to keep an eye on Kagome and for one of them to come get him when she woke up. He then waited for them to get situated around the space, a couple of them chasing other demons from the cave with snapping teeth and snarls. Kouga just smirked wide when one of the sleeping demons questioned him about the wolves, but never answered any of them. He thought it was obvious.

As he was leaving the cave, he crossed paths with Shippo, who was standing at the opening, but didn't want to get too close to the wolf that was glaring at him. The little fox was pretty sure that was one of the wolves that was going to eat him last time he was on the mountain, and he didn't want to find out since Kagome wasn't awake to save him again. Instead, he played with his fingers and looked at the ground when Kouga stopped after Shippo said his name.

Kouga looked down at the fox when nothing followed him saying his name. He looked into cave where the miko was and smiled as he reached down and ruffled Shippo's hair. "Go on, Runt. I'm sure she would want you there when she wakes up."

Gulping hard, Shippo looked up at him. "What about the wolves?"

Cocking a brow, Kouga questioned. "Hmm? Oh, uh... just, bop 'em on the nose. That usually gets them to stop." He crossed his arms and nodded his head towards the cave entrance when Shippo bulked. "Look. You smell like Kagome. They are tasked with protecting her. You have nothing to worry about. But, if it'll make you feel better, the one standing is named Shun. He'll take you to Kagome and make sure the others stay away from you. Your choice."

Being nothing left to say, Kouga turned away from the fox, and motioned for the humans to follow him. Glancing behind him to make sure they were, he stepped off the cliff and slid down the side of the mountain to a lower landing about twenty feet down. He just casually leaned against the rock wall behind him with his arms crossed and eyes hard when the neko landed in front of him. He clicked his claws, trying to formulate what he had to say in a way that didn't make the situation worse than it already was.

When he came to the conclusion it really couldn't get worse, but also wanting to make sure he had all the information needed, he went with the same straightforwardness he always spoke with, because diplomacy really wasn't his thing. "Shippo told me what happened. Is there anything else I should know before I hunt the son of a bitch down?"

Though Miroku didn't want to to make the wolf more upset, Sango didn't care. She laid it all out on the line, leaving out only what she didn't know for sure. She told Kouga about how Inuyasha was leaving the group all the time these days, including at night when he thought they were asleep. She told him about what happened earlier with the shard enhanced mantis and Inuyasha bailing the moment Kagome actually needed him to be there. Then, she told him that Inuyasha had planned it all so Kagome would go home and he could then have Kikyo seal the well, the intention of trapping her in her own time, all so he didn't have to choose between the two mikos.

Kouga could feel the beginning of a migraine setting in between his eyes the longer the slayer spoke. This was just fucking fantastic. Now, he was going to have to inform Sesshoumaru of this nonsense because, though he had never read it, he was pretty sure somewhere in the big book of bylaws it said he would have to let the Western Lord know he intended to kill his brother.

When the wolf said nothing after a few minutes, then the monk spoke. "What are you planning to do, Kouga?"

Lifting his eyes from the rock beneath his feet, Kouga hummed. "Huh? Do? What makes you think I can do anything? This shit's fucked up and, honestly, I'm not sure there's anything to be done."

Not knowing the term 'tact' when it comes to demonic society, Miroku overstepped without realizing it. "But, you're a demon lord. Surely there's something you can do."

The look in the wolf's eyes at the statement, paired with the epic facepalm from the slayer told the monk that was a bad idea. When he went to open his mouth, Kouga growled low and Sango slapped her hand over his mouth to keep the next moronic statement from being made while also keeping an eye on the demon that was less than pleased.

Pushing himself to stand instead of leaning back, Kouga glared at the monk. "Yeah, cause my demonic title is gonna undo the spell of a fucking miko. Use your brain, Monk. I'm as powerless as you, a fact that makes me physically ill to admit." Stalking towards Miroku, he grabbed his arm and jerked him around, pointing out over the terrain. "That, right there. Everything you can see from this landing is my region of the land. That is what my title gives me. Not some magical fucking wand to wave that undoes a holy seal." Again jerking Miroku by the arm, this time so he was looking Kouga dead in his now red eyes. "You wanna know what I can do? I can throw your ass off this cliff. If you don't want to learn to fly, watch yourself."

Miroku nodded and swallowed hard. "Of course. My apologies, Kouga."

The wolf snorted but just shook his head and let go of the monk, who was quick to back away. Scratching his brow with the tip of a claw, Kouga sighed. "You're the one with the holy power, Monk. Why don't you do something to try and break the seal?"

Miroku lifted a helpless shoulder. "The seal wasn't put on with pure intent, therefore it wouldn't be a holy seal, but a dark one. That's out of my abilities to undo. Honestly, I honestly don't think Kikyo can undo it either, even if she wanted to."

For a few minutes Kouga said nothing, just let his mind run itself in circles. Finally, he ran a hand down his face and nodded. "Alright. This is what we're gonna do. I'm going to keep Kagome here for a few days, let her calm down in the most stress free environment possible. It's going to take a long while before she comes to terms with this and is even slightly alright with it. But, a few days of downtime where she's not being attacked by anything will hopefully go a long way. You two are free to come and go as you please, but for now, I want you to go to the village by the well and see if anyone there knows what was done, or where to start looking for a way to fix it, or, really, if it can even be fixed. She's gonna want answers, and I would like to have at least a couple for her when she's ready to talk about this."

Sango nodded, agreeing with the plan so far. "Alright, we'll do that first, but I have to go to my village for a day or so to make repairs to my weapon. We'll be back here in a week at the most."

Kouga nodded to her, but Miroku spoke up then. "What will you be doing during this time, Kouga?"

Very slowly, two sets of eyes moved to the monk, both of them questioning the intelligence of the man. Kouga's voice was flat, but held an edge to it. "Like you pointed out before. I'm a Demon Lord. I'll be doing my job, and what that is, is none of your damn business. You do yours, and let me do mine. Believe it or not, I'm actually pretty fucking good at it." Whipping around and away from the humans, pissed off all over again, he crouched and leapt into the air, grabbing an outcropping of rock and looking back at the humans who were again climbing onto the neko. Before they were settled he called down to them. "See ya in a week."

The two humans looked up at the wolf prince as he pulled himself over the top of the rock and vanished from sight. Sango, who was actually a little worried for the monk, looked over her shoulder at the man. "You and I are going to have a little talk about how to address a demon of Kouga's standing and caliber, Miroku."

Miroku, who felt a shudder run his spine at her tone, looked down at the mountain when they were in the air, watching as Kouga pointed and barked out orders to both demons and animals, the beings booking no arguments and just doing as they were told and scattering about and disappearing into the woods or caverns about the mountain.

Well, he would have to agree; Kouga was certainly efficient with his tribe.


	6. Chapter 6

Head pounding and throat sore, Kagome groaned as she began to swim back into the waking world. She was wore out, but wasn't sure why at first. She opened her eyes and saw Shippo in her line of sight, tears staining his fur, it made it all come crashing down on her again. It didn't occur to her to find out where she was. All that did was she was trapped, that Inuyasha had the well sealed, and she could never go home.

Tears again sprung to her eyes, no effort put into keeping them at bay. She felt something shift at her back, but didn't react to it. She could sense the presence of jewel shards, so she was pretty sure she knew where she was and what was currently curled up behind her. Instead of showing any sort of care to the animal behind her, she reached out and grabbed Shippo, pulling him closer to her and curled herself around him as she closed her eyes again.

What was she going to do?

Tightening her hold on her fox, she cringed hard when the conversation at the village replayed in her mind. No, she didn't feel at all bad for how many times she slammed Inuyasha into the ground. Were she honest, she wanted to do it again... and again. It was his words before that that had her muscles tightening and teeth clenching.

 _So I didn't have to choose..._

Was he fucking serious? Was there even really a choice to be made when you actually plan to get rid of someone permanently like he had? Was it really a choice when you leave one to die to be with the other? There wasn't a choice there. He had made it. The part that hurt was she lost everything in order for him to see that. He was supposed to, at the very least, be her friend. This was the thing you did to an enemy.

To be fair though, with Kikyo involved, he probably thought she was one these days.

Curling more around Shippo, she buried her face in his fur and started to cry harder. She thought about her mother, and what she would think when she didn't come home in three days like she was supposed to do. What would her mother go to the grave thinking happened to her? Her grandfather? Her little brother? What would any of them think when there was never even a single word from her? She was human. She had no chance of ever seeing them again. This is the thing that killed her, the knowing she would die before she ever saw them again.

The knowing there was nothing she could do.

Had she known, she would have hugged them harder. She would have stayed longer. She would have made sure they knew she loved them with everything she had.

Kagome didn't know how long she laid there, but it was long enough to physically run out of tears, when she heard a whistle and the body behind her moved. Not moving, Kagome shifted her eyes, her sight landing on the silhouette of someone she would know anywhere at the mouth of what she had confirmed to be the wolves' cave.

When the warmth at her back was lost, she did move, letting go of Shippo and pushing herself to her hand and hip. She watched the wolves leave and Kouga walk towards her. She just swallowed hard and sniffled. When he was closer, she licked her lips, her voice soft. "How long have I been here?"

A small smile lifted the corner of Kouga's mouth as he crouched next to the straw and fur pallet. Holding out the bottle he found in her bag he knew held water, he dropped his hands over his thighs when Kagome took it. "About a half a day. It'll be nightfall soon."

Shifting how she was positioned, Kagome pulled Shippo into her lap, and set the water bottle down. She was thirsty, but she was pretty sure it would just make her throw up. Shoulders hunched, her bottom lip trembled. "What am I going to do, Kouga?"

Clicking his claws between his legs, Kouga let out a breath. "I dunno, Kagome. Shippo told me what happened, though. I have it being looked into, but..."

When he trailed off, Kagome nodded slowly. "It was never the plan to stay here, and now I have no choice. You can say it. I have no choice. I'm stuck."

Curling his tongue behind his teeth, Kouga looked to the cave wall for a moment before looking back at her. "That is the most likely outcome, yeah." When Kagome whimpered again, Kouga held up a hand. "But... but, there are people here that care about you. We might not be family, but we could be, if you let us. Your human friends are here for you. Shippo hasn't left your side for a minute since we got here. You have my pack. Ya got me. We can't replace your family. I know that. But, you can be part of ours, if you want." When she looked at him again, he smiled at her. "I just want you to know you're not alone. It might seem like it, but you're far from it."

Sniffling again, Kagome shook her head. "I don't belong here. I don't know how to survive here. I don't..."

Scratching his brow, Kouga let her gather her thoughts when she trailed off, but when she didn't speak again for a long moment, he did. "I'm not going to say this will be easy. But, it might not be all bad. It's been a couple of years since we met, so you can obviously survive here, or you wouldn't still be alive at all. You never would have come here in the first place if you didn't belong. Maybe... I dunno. Maybe you are meant to be here, in a way you never knew before. Maybe this was the Kami's path for you. We never get to know their plans until we reach their goals for us. It sucks. I won't deny that. But... maybe it won't be as bad as it seems."

Kagome listened to him, but she couldn't comprehend his words. If what he said was true, then it was really unfair. Looking him in the eyes, she let out a shuddering breath. "My family will never know what happened to me. I'll never live long enough to see them again."

Kouga cocked a brow. Well, that's wasn't entirely true. There were a few ways that he know of to live that long. They weren't pleasant, or smart, but they existed. Also, knowing how far a desperate person would go to get what they only thought they wanted, he kept what he knew to himself. It would do no good to put such things out there, knowing that this particular human, once she got something in her head, could no longer be reasoned with or talked out of making a huge mistake. Instead, he let out a breath and nodded. "We'll figure something out."

Running the back of her hand across her nose, Kagome licked her lips. "Will we?"

Lifting a shoulder in a helpless manner, Kouga made a noise in the back of his throat. "I have to think so, and clearly, so do you. Nothing about this is going to be easy, Kagome. For now, just take it one day at a time, and work things out as they come up. That's the only thing you can do."

Another whimper fell from her lips. "I have nowhere to go."

Unable to help it, a snort bounced off the walls of the cave, making Kagome jump at the suddenness. Kouga shook his head and grinned. "That's bullshit, and you know it. You can stay here. With everything else going on, the Den is the best place for you. It's as stress free of an environment as you'll ever find. You have the cubs for entertainment, the other adults for company and protection while this is figured out. You have options and offerings. You just have to accept them."

Dropping her eyes, Kagome shook her head. "I don't wanna impose."

Even though he'd never heard the word before, Kouga was astute enough to figure out what it meant. People might have believed him simple, but the ookami was actually extremely intelligent, and rolling his eyes, Kouga shook his head again at the stubborn woman. "You know you're welcome here, Kagome. Your friends will be back in a week. So, for now, take it for what it is... downtime. Relax, and... I don't wanna say come to grips with this or accept what happened, but, at least let yourself calm down over it. We can't change what already happened, and you have to prepare yourself for the possibility we might not be able to undo what's been done. What we can do, or more to the point what you can do, is try to find a new perspective that doesn't point to the end of the world as you know it."

Frowning deep, Kagome sighed. "It IS the end of the world as I know it."

A small grin pulled at Kouga's lips as he reached out and set a hand on Kagome's knee, his voice soft as he leaned toward her. "Then build a new one."


	7. Chapter 7

It was several hours after nightfall when Kouga called for the wolves to turn in, and more than a handful later than normal. Kagome had calmed more than he thought she would under the attention she received from the pack, and he didn't want to take that away from her. He knew the cubs, if nothing else, would help cheer her up, but he wasn't expecting the way the other females seemed to take to her. There were three or four the Miko seemed to take a liking to, and the feeling looked mutual from an outside standpoint.

The boar Kouga killed earlier in the day had been collected by the hunters, cleaned, and cooked for dinner that night. Being a rather large animal, it fed everyone, animals included, and what wasn't was taken far enough from the den to ward off scavengers. The hide was prepared to be dried so it could be used for bedding. After dinner, the cubs, Shippo included, played along the cliffs under the ever watchful eyes of the entire pack.

Kagome didn't stray too far from Kouga's side, too many not awesome memories of the last time she was on the mountain rearing up and making her stomach knot. There was also a lot more bodies than she was expecting, and she never really did great with large groups. Being the center of attention was certainly not one of her strong suits, especially when she was in a bad mood or depressed, and as long as she stayed close to him, everyone else stayed away from her.

When she asked why there were women and children there this time and not the last time, it had been explained to her that they weren't safe there at the time because of the Birds of Paradise, but since they weren't a problem anymore, they had been allowed to return. It was in a somewhat standoffish manner she asked about the living males because of what happened at Naraku's castle, and though the unnecessary reminder of that day made Kouga's eyes spark, he had simply told her their survival was due to being the ones sent to protect the females and cubs.

She also learned Kouga was extremely efficient with his pack mates, never having to repeat himself or really even have to rise his voice to get them to fall in line. Most of the time, a look was enough to get his way, and the few it wasn't, a sharp growl was all that was needed. Only once did he have to physically get involved in something, and that was because of an infant cub.

That was how she was introduced to the few females that didn't seem to be threatened by her for whatever reason. Kouga had to chase after a cub that got just a little too close to the cliff's edge for anyone's comfort and, while he was dealing with the young cub, three tribe females came over and sat with her. While she wasn't rude, Kagome didn't go into great detail over why she was there or answer about how long she would be staying. One of those answers she didn't know and the other wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

Once that was clear, the wolf women switched topics and pried into her interest in their alpha. They weren't stupid. They knew who this woman was. How could they not? Kouga had spoke only of her for the better part of three years. They were mostly curious if he had finally gotten her to agree to his advances, but one of those sharp growls from the man himself quickly ended that line of questioning, and directed it more toward just getting to know things about the human.

Once the uncomfortable air passed, Kagome had been able to relax, even smile to a small degree as she watched the cubs and conversed with the other adults under the much more watchful eye, and ear, of Kouga. He promised her a stress free, or as stress free as possible, environment, and the fact she watched him nearly go out of his way to keep that promise made that small smile grow just a little bit more.

It became clear the cubs were up way past their bedtime when the they began to get overly aggressive toward each other, leading Kouga to call for bedding down for the night. The order actually left Kagome in a bit of a bind, though. She had no idea where she was supposed to sleep, and felt very uncomfortable with the idea of asking.

From the corner of his eye, Kouga watch Kagome stay where she was as everyone else cleaned the cliff and the mothers began to usher the little ones inside. It wasn't being the first time since she woke up and joined everyone outside she didn't offer to help with whatever was being done that caught his attention. It was her expression. Her face said more than she ever would, and he quickly realized they didn't cover something earlier when they discussed the half-assed plan he had worked out while they waited for her friends to return.

Leaving the men to do as they always did at night, he walked over to her and held out a hand, smiling when she took it, and pulled her to her feet. He didn't say anything as he pulled her behind him and into the cave, but when he got to the fork in the rock, he let her hand go and nodded into the other cavern. "You'll sleep in there, unless you would rather sleep in here with me."

Looking into the smaller cavern, Kagome watched as mothers, cubs, and the other women began to lay out furs around the floor and start to settle in for the night. Lips pursed, she looked back at Kouga. "You don't all stay together at night?"

Kouga just gave a shake of his head. "Not anymore at night, no. It's for protection purposes. If someone, or someones, come in the cave, they have to get through every single male and animal, then get through me, to get to our women and cubs. We used to, though. Mates would sleep next to each other with their cubs, but, and it's not often, but we have been invaded before. When my father was alive, a rival pack attacked in the middle of the night and slaughtered every cub they could reach and took every female they could get their hands on until they were run off, their intent to weaken our pack so they could take over the lands. You can get back someone who's kidnapped, but you can't bring back the dead. The cubs are our future, and the women folk provide us that future. They're much better protected now."

All Kagome could do was nodded at the history lesson, having absolutely nothing to say to it. Instead. with her bottom lip between her teeth, she looked into the cavern for a moment before looking back at Kouga, saying nothing.

Kouga just chuckled. "This is up to you, Kagome. Whatever you find more comfortable. In there with the other women, or out here with me."

This was actually a much harder decision than she thought it should be. She was a woman. It should only be natural to want to sleep in a room full of other women opposed to a room full of men. However, she didn't really _know_ the other women, and even if she got along with a couple, there had been some that had less than pleasant looks for her, and she wasn't sure she would be completely safe. On the other hand, she was even more sure she wasn't really ready to sleep next to man for any reason.

It was that thought that, in the end, and after a three minute long debate with herself, Kagome decided to sleep in the cavern with the other women, if for no other reason than appearance sake; though she kept that part of her answer to herself.

Nodding at her choice, Kouga turned his head and whistled a short tune, the result bringing a large, burly looking wolf to his side. Reaching down, Kouga dug his claws into the animal's fur, racking them against the animal's scalp while talking to Kagome. "This is Shun. He's the animal alpha, and my personal pet. Other than myself, he's the best defense you can possibly ask for. He'll stay with you until you get more comfortable here."

Holding her hand out to the wolf, she rubbed her fingers along Shun's muzzle when he nuzzled it against her palm while looking at Kouga. "Is defense really necessary with all the other things you have in place?"

Ever patient with her, Kouga nodded. "You have shards on you, don't you?"

It was that question that actually caught Kagome slightly guard. Of course she did. She always did. And there were a lot of creatures on the island that wanted those shards. It was almost enough for her to tell Kouga she would sleep outside for the protection of everyone else.

When she nodded, he continued before she could say the words he saw in her eyes. "Then while you're sleeping _inside_ , any extra protection I can offer is only a good thing, right?"

A glare that held no head settled on Kagome's face as she nodded. "I guess so."

Smirking the grin Kagome normally saw, Kouga opened his arms, and wrapped them around her shoulders when she tucked herself into his chest. Propping his chin on the top of her head, he held her close for a long moment before he lowered his voice when she pulled back. "Get some sleep, Kagome. Things will be better in the morning."

Again, Kagome nodded her head, her eyes sliding closed when Kouga pressed his lips lightly to her hairline. Giving him a smile, she stepped back and scooped Shippo into her arms, following Shun as he went into the smaller cavern. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled with a 'good night' and vanished around the corner.

Kouga watched the entrance to the cavern for a moment longer before stretching his arms above his head with a tongue curling yawn. Clearing his throat, he grunted and licked his lips as he turned to head to his own bed where he shed his armor and sword and laid out on his pallet. A part of him had hoped she said she would rather sleep next to him, but he wouldn't begrudge her decision.

Picking her way through the cavern so she didn't step on someone, Kagome closely followed after Shun to a slightly raised rock platform someone had already set up with multiple layers of furs. She looked around but, when she didn't see anyone looking her way, she lightly shrugged and followed Shun's lead of laying down on the makeshift bed after she released Shippo.

It took her a few minutes to get comfortable, but when she did, both canines on the bed with her laid down and conformed to her, Shun lying in such a way to be used as a pillow should Kagome desire, and also so he could see the entrance opening.

Kagome didn't even notice.

She was so tired, and so emotionally exhausted, she wasn't awake that long after closing her eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

 **I wasn't going to update so soon, but I found out one of my readers had a truly shitty day, and I wanted to help make it a little better.**

 **1... I hope tomorrow is better for you!**

 **Much Love  
~Kouga's Eternal **

***X***

Ripped out of a decently peaceful sleep, Kagome's lingering scent still on his bed from earlier giving him very pleasant dreams, Kouga growled low, and without opening his eyes, batted the cold nose away from him before he rolled over, his voice muffled from shoving his face into his blanket. "Fuck off, Shun. Go piss if ya gotta take a piss." It took a moment for his sleep fogged brain to catch up with his mouth, but when it did, he shot up and whipped back around, his spine popping from neck to tail with the action. Eyes wide and lips parted, he stared at his wolf for a moment before he found his voice. "What the fuck, Shun? You're supposed to be..."

Hearing a muffled whimper, Kouga threw the fur covering off his legs and lunged to his feet. Unlike with Kagome when she made her way through the smaller chamber within the cave, the shine over his eyes, as well as his hyper awareness of what was around him, made his steps sure as he made his way to where Kagome was placed for the night. There wasn't even a passing worry about stepping on someone as he weaved through the sleeping bodies, not making a sound as he did so.

There was a slight moment of shock when he realized where Shun was leading him, but when his eyes landed on the little Miko, it was pushed to the side as Kouga slowed, a sigh of her name slipping past his lips. She was now sitting up, her face buried in the fur over her legs to help try and muffle her whines and whimpers in the hopes she didn't disturb the sleeping wolves.

Reaching down and scratching behind Shun's ear, giving him silent praise, Kouga then made his way over to the platform Kagome was on, taking a seat, and with a slight frown on his lips, set a hand on her shoulder. Unlike in the forest, he was ready for the sudden lunge, and braced himself for it to avoid getting knocked onto the floor. His did readjust himself slightly, more for her comfort than his, and just held her close as she continued to cry.

Though he winced when he felt Kagome's nails dig into the skin of his bare back, he did swallow the noise of discomfort that came with it, and instead redirected his thoughts as he waited for her to once again either run out of steam enough for him to talk to her, or cry herself back to sleep, the same soft growl in his chest he discovered did actually help calm her down.

He allowed his eyes to roam the chamber of sleeping bodies, in his own mind curious why the females of the tribe made the collective decision to make up Kagome's bed in the place reserved exclusively for the pack's alpha female. While it made sense from a protection standpoint to put a human at the back the cave where literally no one would ever get to her before they were killed, there was more than enough space to make up the same bed on the ground level instead of putting her on the raised rock.

The reason the pack's alpha female was placed higher than everyone else was so she could see the entrance of the cavern, and whoever it was that thought to enter. She was placed at the back of the cavern because, of everyone in the tribe, she was to be the most protected. Unlike the rest of the women in the tribe who anyone could mate with, she was only allowed to mate with the alpha male, because it would be her offspring that would one day take over the pack, and those cubs had to be the offspring of the reigning alpha.

Truthfully, the alpha female of a wolf demon tribe lived a very cushy life in comparison to the other females within her ranks. While yes, it was true she was tasked with some level of responsibility when it came to the other women and cubs, there was zero responsibility on her shoulders when it came to protecting them. The only thing she was responsible for when it came to protection was protecting her own cubs.

Absentmindedly, his eyes moved from the sleeping bodies to the alcove at the back of the rock, his own time spent there flashing through his mind. It wasn't huge, but it was large enough for both mother and cub to lay comfortably during nighttime feedings. It also couldn't be seen from the entrance, keeping the alpha's cubs hidden. At the back of the alcove, he knew there was a covered over tunnel that would allow the mother to remove her cubs from the den unnoticed if necessary, and the exit to the tunnel was closed off at the other end, making it impossible to find if you didn't know where to look.

It was the alpha male's responsibility to protect the entire pack, but it was the entire pack's responsibility to protect the alpha female. There would never be a shortage of pack members, but without her, should something happen to the pack's alpha, there wouldn't be a next in line, which would then throw the pack into chaos, and they would be left to scramble and slaughter to name a new alpha. The Beta wolf was chosen by the alpha, and just like anyone else, would have to prove themselves worthy of taking over for their dead leader. Kouga had never personally seen a restructuring of a pack, but his father told him stories when he was cub, and to him and his more bloodthirsty side, it honestly sounded like fun. It was literally nothing less than a dogfight until, basically, the alpha female decided someone proved himself worthy to mate with.

The status of alpha was only lost with death, so as long as there was an alpha female, there would always, eventually, be an alpha male. If something happened to the alpha male and the alpha female didn't already birth his cubs, or wasn't pregnant with his cubs, she would be expected to mate with her chosen winner of the battle until a cub was produced. It would not, in any way, elevate the winner to status of alpha, but it would be his cub that took over the pack when that cub reached maturity. Until that point, the pack continued to follow the rules set in place by the dead alpha.

When the cub became sexually mature, he would then choose his own female to mate with to prevent inbreeding, but she wouldn't take over the position of alpha female until the cub's mother died, beit by fair means or foul. The alpha female would be allowed to take another mate should she desire the company, but only her offspring would receive a title or place in line for one, not whoever she chose to spend her time with; unless, of course, he thought he could beat her cub in a fight when he was old enough to receive his birthright.

That was how the line of succession of wolf demons differed from that of their animal counterparts. In an animal wolf pack, while there was always a female the alpha male favored, all the of the cubs in the pack belonged to him. If something happened to him, it wasn't one of his offspring that took over, it was whoever proved to the be strongest adult wolf in the pack, usually the beta. While he wouldn't kill the living cubs when he took over the pack, it would only be his own cubs he concerned himself with, leaving it up to nature over whether or not the previous alpha's cubs lived or died, and they would be run off when they were no longer in need of their mother, and that was only if their mother wasn't impregnated or had a new cub to care for that belonged to the leader of the pack. It was pretty fucked up, but it was the best way to ensure the new alpha's lineage if there was none of the previous alpha's cubs taking up precious resources.

Unlike with cats, wolves don't kill cubs in order to move up within the ranks of the pack. They only kill other mature wolves in order to become more important. Packs with an alpha female, should something happen to the male, the pack will rally behind the alpha female, all but ensuring her cubs survive to take over to avoid that bloody fucking war, for lack of a better term. Should something happen to the alpha female before her cubs were able to survive without her, the other females in the pack would band together, even abandoning their own cubs if necessary, to ensure the alpha's cubs survived.

There weren't many differences between wolf demons and the animals they came from, but the hierarchy and cubs were what set them apart. Currently, there were 27 immature cubs in Kouga's pack. He wasn't the sire of any of them, but he was responsible for the survival of all of them. That also wouldn't change when he started to have cubs of his own. While his cubs would certainly have his attention and favor, they wouldn't lessen his responsibility to the other cubs. The goal was to have all cubs reach maturity, not just his, and that took the entire pack to accomplish.

Wolf demon cubs needed their mother for nearly the first 60 years of their lives, mostly because of how small they are until then, and there was a lot to teach them about the world if they chose to leave the pack when they reached maturity. That was a lot of time, and generally speaking, unless they make the choice to leave, they aren't forced out unless they fuck up in a big way. Usually, that's challenging the alpha, and losing, or making the attempt to touch his mate. That wouldn't get them kicked out of their ass so much as it would get him killed, though.

As far as cub went, however, there was a very simple truth; if it came down to the survival of his cubs or someone else's, it would be his cubs that survived. Should he have more than one, and faced with the same decision, the focus would go to the eldest male.

Being a Regional Demon Lord, though, hardly made most of that worth worrying about. There was always some level of threat to his life by those that wanted his territory, but you don't hold the title of Cardinal Lord without having the ability to defend said title. He wasn't even slightly concerned about his living status, or that of any hypothetical future cubs. The only person's living status he was currently concerned about was that of the woman in his arms if she didn't stop continuing to try and deplete herself of every last ounce of hydration.

And that was what put him in his current bind.

Her backpack had been left toward the mouth of the cave, and that was where her water bottles were. The sheer strength of her hold on him meant he wasn't going to be able to go get it, Shun would likely destroy it, and Shippo was a child, so he would be stopped before he got anywhere near it because cubs were not allowed out of their sleeping chamber without their mother after dark. For Shippo, that would be Kagome, and as for Kagome herself, she cried so hard and for so long, she had almost exhausted herself nearly back to sleep. However, he could tell from her scent she needed to drink something, or she was going to end up in a much worse state than she was already in.

Looking down at the top of her head, Kouga hummed in his throat, debating with himself on what his best course of action was. Kagome was clearly seeking comfort, something to ground herself after having her world turned upside down. Because of that, he figured she didn't want to be alone. With that thought in mind, he moved his arms from around her, sliding the tips of his fingers down her arms to her wrist. Taking a light hold, he cast her a small smile as he changed how she was holding onto him, and moved her arms from around his torso to around his neck.

Once he felt her tighten her grip, he pulled her first to sit in his lap, before he then slipped one arm under her knees and the other wrapped around her back. Once he stood and as he adjusted his hold on Kagome after she tucked her head into his neck, he looked down at Shun, telling him to stay with Shippo, and to bring the kit to Kagome if he woke up. He watched his wolf hop up on the furs and wrap himself around the sleeping kit, and once his pet was settled, he turned and made his way from the smaller cavern into the main part of the cave.

Stopping by his bed, he gently sat Kagome down and, after a promise he would be right back, he was able to pull her arms free of his neck. He watched her for a moment as she grabbed his fur blanket, but turned away so he could go get what was needed from her pack as she got settled. Leaving the bag itself where it sat, he flipped open the top as he had seen her do plenty of times, moved things around without pulling anything out, and grabbed the first bottle he found that held water in it. Flipping the top back over the bag, he stood and headed back to his bed.

Taking a seat himself, between her and the wolves that surrounded his bed, he held out the bottle. When she tried to set it down next to her after she took it, Kouga shook his head. "You're dehydrated. Drink it, Kagome."

Running the back of one hand under her nose, Kagome looked at Kouga before she dropped her eyes to the bottle of water he handed her. With a shuddering breath, she unscrewed the lid, only intending to take a small sip to pacify the wolf, but she ended up drinking almost half the bottle in one go once the liquid touched her parched throat. Panting slight for her breath when she was done, she nodded slightly when she heard Kouga ask if it helped at all. Screwing the cap back in place, Kagome sniffled again. "I'm sorry if I woke you up."

Kouga just waved off the apology as he shifted, laying down on his side and propping his head in his palm. "You didn't. Shun did. He got concerned when you didn't calm back down." When he saw the look of slight confusion, he just shrugged slightly. "The animals know when something isn't right. They might not be able to grasp certain concepts, but they can decipher emotional climates as well as us demons can. Shun might only be a couple of years old, but he's seen enough upset females to know when something's going on. When he realizes something isn't right, he's trained to come get me to deal with it."

Kagome just nodded, saying nothing for a moment as she wrapped her arms around her shins and set her chin on her knees.

Kouga just waited for her to speak, but when she remained silent, he clicked his tongue. "Do you wanna tell me about it?" In response to her shaking her head, he nodded and lifted his arm. "Come here."

Lifting her eyes, she looked at him, debating with herself over the invitation. It was one thing to cry on him in an upright position, but what he was suggesting was a whole different level of intimacy, and something she hadn't done before. She's never laid in the arms of a man, much less one that was half naked and that, buried under the heartbreak and bullshit, she did hold some level of attraction to, and certainly never one she knew for point positive was attracted to her. She knew how he felt about her, and she didn't want him to think she was trying to take advantage of that fact.

Biting into her bottom lip, her need for comfort in the end outweighing anything else, she let out a breath and moved from her place. Shifting closer, even knowing in the back of her over emotionally exhausted mind it would continue to blur already unfocusing lines in their relationship, she slowly laid down with her chest facing his. She did leave a couple of inches between them for the sake of modesty because of his state of undress, but was close enough to feel the warmth from his body.

Reaching over her, Kouga grabbed the fur blanket from where Kagome left it, and pulled it over them. It was a slightly chilly night, so he wasn't that surprised when he felt the miko shiver, and in response, pulled her against him. Once the fur was in place, Kouga readjusted how he was laying, letting Kagome use his arm for a pillow, and wrapped his other arm around her back. He waited until she settled against him before he situated himself, closing his eyes and burying his nose in her hair after she made a few small adjustments to her position.

Hearing her take a hiccuping breath, Kouga tightened his hold, his fingers on the hand of the arm over her slipping into Kagome's hair as she pressed her face against his throat, the arm under her head wrapping around her shoulders. Kouga once again kicked up that quiet growl in his chest, at this point the action almost becoming habit when he had her in his arms.

For the fact she wasn't a canine demon, there was a certain level of amusement on Kouga's part that something meant to calm canine women and their cubs worked so well when it came to her, but not five minutes later, her body stopped shaking with her silent sobs, her heart and breathing leveling out as she fell back to sleep.

Kouga only lasted another few minutes before he too fell back to sleep after lending an momentary ear to the rhythmic heartbeats and breathing of the rest of his tribe, ensuring all was as it should be for the late hour before he allowed himself to relax. With his very fragile human in his arms, though, it wasn't a deep sleep, but it was restful one, even with as often as he moved around in necessity for her comfort. He kept her held against him for the rest of the night, quickly discovering anytime his grip loosened she would let out a quiet whine, and an hour before daybreak when he woke up, it was with a smile on his face for the first time in his life.

He was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, his normally oh so charming demeanor on pair with that of a serial killer before breakfast. However, sleeping with his woman in his arms, even for as little as he got, Kouga got the best night's sleep he could ever remember having, and though detangling himself from her was less than desired, he left the cave in an exceptionally good mood.


	9. Chapter 9

Awoken by the sounds of laughter, Kagome slowly slitted her eyes open, but made no move to actually get up. She was stiff, horribly uncomfortable, no amount of stretching seemed to work out her muscles, and there was a stabbing pain in her hip. She had thought she was used to sleeping on harder surfaces having spent three years sleeping on the ground, but she was wrong. Though, she supposed there was a difference between dirt and grass covered ground and the floor of a cave. Then again, the stiffness could also be because she was surrounded on both sides by an animal that weighs as much or more than her that kept her in one position for longer than her body was meant to be in one position.

Not picking her head up, she let her eyes roam the area, and discovered she was back in the smaller chamber she originally fell asleep in. She also noticed very quickly the woman and cubs were gone, replaced with more wolves than she had ever seen in one place. She knew Kouga had a lot of animals, but she didn't realize there were enough to fill such a large area, and them not be laying on top of each other.

Sliding her eyes down, she recognized Shun nearly right away from the markings on his fur, and if she had to level a guess, it was most likely Shun's beta that was laying behind her. If it wasn't for the two wolves holding her in place, Kagome was positive she wouldn't be so sore because she would have been able to actually move. Another issue was, she was boiling in her skin between the wolves cuddling, the fur she was laying on, and the one she was under that the two animals were on top of, effectively trapping her in place. While she was positive that was at least part of the goal, she almost felt like she was suffocating she was so hot.

Getting later in the morning, Kouga decided to go check on the human, and there was a certain level of amusement on his part when he reached the sleeping chamber for the females and cubs.

He wasn't sure, exactly, how she would react waking up where she hadn't fallen back to sleep, but knowing her like he did, he assumed she would have rather that then find out she was by herself in a room full of men. However, if she asked, he would tell her since there were so many running in and out during the morning hours as the member of the pack woke up, he felt it would be better to have her, not so much out of the way, but at least outside of the excitement of the morning activities.

The very boisterous voices and antics of the cubs could get under the skin of even the most docile creatures before they had their breakfast, and with the fitful sleep he knew Kagome had gotten, he had felt it best to remove her from a situation where she could possibly snap at one of the cubs and entirely remove the possibility of her feeling bad about it.

Leaning a shoulder on the stone opening, Kouga crossed his arms as he grinned at the struggling Miko as she tried in vain to move Shun's fluffy ass enough to get up. With a chuckle in the back of his throat, Kouga curled his tongue behind his teeth, blowing a high, octave changing whistle.

Much to Kagome's surprise, but not at all to Kouga's, both wolves that were on the bed with her rolled to their feet without so much as touching her, the one behind her leaping over her body and onto the floor without even disturbing the fur of the blanket she wasted no time throwing off her body. Though her body was instantly covered in goosebumps from the rush of much cooler air than she was expecting, Kagome still fanned at her face as she pushed herself into a sitting position, looking at Kouga as she rubbed her sore hip. "You mean to tell me that was all I needed to do? Blow a damn whistle?"

Popping a shoulder in a quick shrug, Kouga grinned wide enough to show a fang. "That, or just say, 'move it, fat ass'. Either one usually works." Uncrossing one arm he reached down and let his claws slide thought Shun's thick coat as he passed by, scratching at the animal's flank. "Doesn't it, ya chunky bastard?" Patting Shun's hip, chuckling quietly at the noise of affection from the animal, he sent him, as well as the rest of the wolves, on their way as he returned his sights to Kagome. "How are you this morning? Did you sleep okay after I got up?"

Stretching her body and twisting from side to side to pop her spine, Kagome let out a sigh when everything popped back into place. "I guess so. I mean, I didn't even know I was moved, so I must have eventually gone back to sleep."

Nodding slowly, Kouga made a noise in his throat. "You were pretty out of it, yeah. Didn't think you would sleep this late, though. It's almost midday."

Visibly jolting at the knowledge she slept so late, Kagome blinked. "Is it really?"

Clicking his tongue, Kouga nodded again. "You had a pretty rough night, last night."

Knowing that was an understatement, Kagome didn't respond, but instead turned to wake up Shippo, only to gasp when he wasn't in the little cove at the back of the platform where she knew him to be. Looking at at Kouga, her eyes were wide. "Where's Shippo?"

Holding up a hand to stave off a freak out, Kouga kept his voice level. "Calm down, Kagome; he's fine. He woke up about the same time as the rest of the cubs did, and instead of leaving him in here where he might have ended up waking you up, I took him onto the cliffs. He's with the rest of the cubs, showing off his magic tricks."

Letting out a hard breath, Kagome scratched at the back of her head. "Sorry. It's just..."

Kouga just waved her off. "It's fine. I know how important he is to you." Then his nose wrinkled and his eyes crinkled in the corners. "Not exactly sure how reassuring you'll find this, but Ginta is the one keeping an eye on him right now."

Nodding to the wolf, Kagome finally moved to stand, lacing her fingers together and, moving her arms above her head, stretched as high as her could. With another grunt as she popped her shoulders, she sagged slightly as she lowered her arms. "I thought cubs weren't allowed out of here without their mothers."

Kouga just shrugged again, tearing his eyes away from the skin that was once again covered when Kagome dropped her arms. "Under normal circumstances, yeah, but it's not like we lock up the kid because its mother is sick. However, in the middle of the night when no one knows where the hell they are? That shit is just asking for all likes of trouble, so no... cubs absolutely are not allowed outside unsupervised after sundown. When the sun is up and everyone else is running around, not to mention the fucking alpha? Someone will have eyes on the little scamps, so the rules around here lax more than a just a little bit. The only exception after dark is if their mother is either ill or pregnant and they have to go to the bathroom. In which case, either one of the animals or an available female will keep an eye on the little one."

Stifling a yawn as she made her way across the cavern, she crossed her arms as she tilted her head to the side. "Why not the father? Shouldn't he take over his cub's care if their mother is unable to?"

Nose wrinkling at the question, Kouga grunted and shook his head. "Not so much, no, and not because he's not interested or anything like that. The females of the pack are free to rut with whoever the hell they want, and most of them don't rut with just one male while in heat. I don't know who any of those cubs were sired by, and neither does anyone else. They are just as likely to belong to Ginta or Hakkaku as they are to belong to Ryu or Mosamaru. It's because we don't know the sirehood that makes everyone so willing to look after each individual cub, because that cub that runs off and gets hurt could very likely be theirs. There is only one female in any wolf demon tribe where the sirehood of her cubs is certain, and that's the alpha female's, and those cubs would belong to the..."

When Kouga trailed off with a cocked brow, Kagome finished it, proving she understood the explanation thus far. "Alpha male."

With one sharp nod, Kouga tsked. "Exactly, and currently, we are one alpha female short." Pausing for a moment, he hummed before looking down at the Miko that was now standing right in front of him. "That's not to say if a cub woke up one of the men they wouldn't take the cub to the bathroom; it's just more so the kid doesn't. Female cubs especially don't care to wake up one the males because they have to take a piss. The only exception to that is if, for whatever reason, that female cub is scared; be it from a nightmare, or she heard something, or she just thought she did. Then she'll gladly wake however many men necessary for her to feel safe again, and every single one of her chosen protectors will kill the shadows if she asks them to."

Nodding slowly in understanding, a sly smirk then pulled at Kagome's lips as she looked up at him through her lashes. "So, could any of them be yours?"

Kouga snorted as he dipped his head and looked her dead in the eyes. "Not a single one."

Clearly caught off guard by that answer, when Kouga pulled back, Kagome blinked. "So, you've never slept with any of the women here?"

Brows raising, the corner of Kouga's upper lip curled. "When the Hell did I say that? I said none of the cubs were mine, not that I haven't enjoyed my position in the past. I just never did it while they were in heat." Pausing a moment, he gave his words some thought, but ultimately, it all came down to the same thing. "You know what? I don't even give a shit how this sounds. Our women can fuck whoever the hell they want, whenever the hell they want to fuck, but the moment they offer themselves to another male, I have no use for them. As the alpha of this pack I am within my rights to have whatever female I choose, at any time of my choosing, but I am a Lord and a Prince. At no point would I ever lower myself to sharing a female with someone else. When I do have my own cubs, they'll come from my alpha female, not some random bitch in heat." He knew he fucked up the moment he gave away the secret he had kept from her about actually being important, but the look on her face clearly said the cat was out of the bag.

While it was true he was roughly 45 years younger than Sesshoumaru, he had actually held the title of Lord for about 23 years longer than the Inu. The difference between the two was Kouga never coveted the position he inherited from his father. However, being the territorial bastard he was, he certainly wouldn't be giving it up while there was air in his lungs.

Both brows hidden by her bangs, Kagome's voice was a mix of shock and awe. There was quite a bit in that statement he just made she felt was worth further exploration, but there was a singular part that caught most of her attention. She knew he was a prince; she found that out the day they met, but it had been explained over the years that particular title literally only had to do with wolves. To find out his was also a Lord as well was enough to make her breath catch because the only demon lord she had any experience with was Sesshoumaru. "Lord?"

His signature grin in place, Kouga chuckled as he gave a smart assed bow of his head. "Of the Eastern Lands. How Shippo and the slayer knew that and you didn't is slightly odd, if you want the truth. That aside, because of titles being involved, things in this tribe work a little different than they do in other wolf packs. _My_ female won't just be the alpha female of this group, but the Lady of the Lands as well... among other things."

Crossing her arms, she gave the wolf a glare, but it didn't hold any heat, and was mostly playful. "All these years of this 'my woman' business, and you didn't even think it was necessary to make sure I knew what all that shit would entail?"

Pointing a finger at her, his expression smoothed out, and his voice wasn't nearly as good natured. "Don't even try it. My position within Demonic Society only would have mattered had you made any indication of accepting my numerous advances. If you would have, I would have told you. Since you haven't, I fail to see why my being a demon lord matters. To another point, you did know I was a prince. Of the two titles I have, that's the more important one, because royalty trumps nobility any day."

Blinking at the defensiveness on Kouga's part, she did give his words an additional moment thought before she gave him a jerky nod. "Touche."

Letting out a light sigh, Kouga reached out a hand, taking hold of Kagome's, and lacing his fingers with hers. Looking her in the eyes, his voice lowered to something much more soothing, and held all the care he held for her. "Look, Kagome. While we're on that subject, you know good and damn well how I feel about you. Regardless of titles I don't really care about, you're the only one I want by my side; not as my lady, or my princess; just _mine._ "

She was flattered, she really was. She wasn't, however, ready to entertain anything that had to do with her not being able to go home; even knowing that was very likely going to be the case. So, instead of responding to what Kouga said with much more than a dark blush and a shy smile, she cleared her throat and averted her eyes. "So, yesterday, when you said to build a new world, you meant with you."

Kouga nodded his head as his signature grin split his lips. "Oh, absolutely. You know, three years ago, I considered doing some very underhanded shit to have you by my side."

Unable to help it, Kagome snorted, amusement lighting her eyes. "You did try some underhanded shit."

There was chuckle that befit his demonic blood on the air as Kouga shook his head. "No... I didn't, trust me. Stepping in to protect you and a handful of wild flowers ain't shit compared to some of the other things I could have done. But, the thing is, I didn't want to win that way. I wanted you to choose me because you wanted to be with me; not because you just didn't want to be with him."

It was almost delicate the way Kagome's tongue poked out from behind her lips, lightly running the length as she fought to find the words she wanted to say to him. When she started speaking, she wasn't sure if what she was saying was making any sense, but she threw out her thoughts she had in the hot spring before she found out she had been trapped in the past. "To tell you the truth, I don't think... there was ever a possibility for that to happen... and it's not fair." Flicking her eyes to Kouga's curious ones, she sighed. "And it's not just you, either. Back home, there's this boy named Hojo. He's a great guy. Kinda nerdy, a little weird in his... extreme interest of infectious diseases and herbal remedies."

Waving a hand at the cocked brow she was getting, Kagome grunted. "Believe me... you do not want to know. Point being, as far as humans go, he's... just about fucking perfect. He's the guy every girl in my school wanted. If it wasn't for being pulled into the past, I probably would have, too. But, since that's not what happened, he just... he doesn't measure up, anymore."

It was then she lowered her eyes, her voice going slightly quieter. "And then there's you. You're a great guy. A little weird, kinda nerdy at times. But as far as demons go you're just about fucking perfect."

Quick to pull her flush against his body, Kouga smirked down at her as he laced his fingers together behind her back to hold her in place. "I'm good with stopping this conversation right there." To both his shock, and delight, she didn't pull away like she always had in the past, and against his better judgement, there was a blossoming hope in his gut.

With a small smile her lips, Kagome sighed with a slight amusement, though it really wasn't funny. "But..." rolling her eyes when Kouga responded with a 'damn it, woman', she continued as she looked up at Kouga through her lashes. "But, this has always felt wrong. Not 'bad' wrong, either, but like I'm cheating or something. No matter how much I tell myself I'm not, remind myself I'm not his, that I have never been his, that I never will be his, and that I sure as fuck don't want to be his, it's never made the feeling go away. It's never really, truly, felt like my choice either, because who in their right mind would ever choose to come second to a corpse?" Lowering her eyes to Kouga's stomach since she was still so close, she sighed again. "That's what's not fair."

With a hum in his throat, Kouga took a long moment to consider what she said, but really, he was more focused on what she didn't. Clicking the back of his tongue, he tilted his head to the side. "Maybe not, but you see..." waiting for he to look back up at him, he dipped his head once again. The tip of his nose touching hers, his voice was nearly nonexistent it was so quiet. "Perspective really is a hell of a thing." Voice still soft, he pulled back only enough to allow Kagome's eyes to focus on his. "You gave me yours, now here's mine. You've never let me hold you like this before, not when you weren't upset or crying, anyway, and you haven't pulled away from me yet. You slept in my arms last night, pitching a fit whenever my grip went lax. Nothing you said says you don't want this, but your actions clearly say you do. Actions, Kagome, are what matter, and those tell me you're exactly where you want to be."

Still not pulling away from the wolf, Kagome sighed to herself as tears prickled her eyes again. "I want to go home." If she were in the mindset to be honest, if even to herself, the words actually burned her tongue, but she wasn't ready to admit to anything but those five words.

With a very shallow nod, Kouga's eyes turned to liquid as he slightly tilted his head. "And I will do whatever I have to, to get you there. If there is a way, I swear to the Kami themselves, Kagome, I'll find it." Moving one hand out from behind her, he used it to cup her cheek. "But, if there isn't, you have a place here. It might not be the same as where you're from, but I can promise you it's certainly never boring."

Unknown to her, Kagome leaded her head slightly into Kouga's palm, licking her lips and swallowing hard. "But, what about what you just said about not wanting me to choose you just because I couldn't have something else?"

Kagome might not have realized what she did, but Kouga felt it, and that seed of hope grew just a little bit more. His voice soft, he locked their eyes. "I'm a wolf, Kagome, a pack animal. Family is everything to us. I don't mind coming second to that. I do mind coming second to a hanyou, though."

In an attempt to dispel the heavy atmosphere that settled around her, Kagome smiled slightly with a quiet chuckle. "I thought loyalty was everything to a wolf."

Nose wrinkling as he head slowly rolled on his shoulders, Kouga looked back at her with a fang flashing smirk. "That's more of a... personal thing. If you recall, it was your loyalty to your kit that changed how I saw you. I am an alpha after all, which makes _that_ particular trait everything to me."

Giving that a moment's thought, the memory surfacing in Kagome's mind, she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth. It was true. Before she basically threw Shippo off the side of a damn cliff, she was nothing more than a captive, something to be used because of what she could do. Then, after she sent Shippo away, and in clear view of Kouga, he did completely change toward her. Not so much in the way he acted, but in the way he spoke to her. He was still brash and straightforward, telling her without care she was going to be 'his woman', but over time, she learned that was just him. He never beat around the bush, getting directly to the bottom line, and backing his words up. Her slapping the damn taste out of his mouth for that comment wasn't even a deterrent. Honestly, it only seemed to spur him on, and he had kept that 'his woman' shit up for three solid years.

For those three years, whenever he could, he showered her with his attention and special form of affection, while she spent those same three years with someone who only ever showed her any kindness at all when he knew she was pissed off, and she was positive he only did it for two reasons; so she would feed him and so she wouldn't leave.

Kagome knew she was completely useless in the eyes of Inuyasha. Nothing she ever did was good enough, because she wasn't Kikyo. The only thing she has the dead bitch doesn't is the fact she could see the shards, but she was curious if that was actually true. If that was the case, and Kikyo could, then he didn't need her anymore. And, if that was the case, she was starting to wonder if what he did was much less about him just not having to make a choice he clearly already made, but more about just getting rid of her, even after everything she had ever done for him.

Looking up at Kouga through her lashes, her bottom lip still trapped, she redirected her thoughts back to him. There were a few things she had often wondered about when it came to the wolf, the biggest being, if he hadn't just blown in and out, if he would have stayed longer than he did, if things would have been different. So, she decided to ask. "Why did you never stay?" When she saw a questioning look settle on his face, she elaborated. "When you showed up to save the day. Why did you always leave?"

With a hum in his throat, Kouga shrugged. "Because... you were convinced you wanted him and I... couldn't watch it." Then, he grunted as he once again wrapped his arms around her waist, his head slightly tilted and his brows drawn. "It _physically_ hurt to see you look at the mutt like the fucker hung the damn stars in the sky. It didn't hurt any less to walk away, but I just... I couldn't stomach it."

Once again knowing it was better to put a stop to the happenings, Kagome did the opposite. Instead of pulling away, she sighed as she laid her cheek against Kouga's chest, closing her eyes with a quiet sigh when she felt his arms tighten around her. While the comment that fell from her lips in that moment slipped undetected past her verbal filter, after it was given life, Kagome couldn't really argue with it.

"You should have kidnapped me again."


	10. Chapter 10

In the first days following her arrival at the den, Kagome had tried to settle into life on the cliffs as best as a human was able. There wasn't an abundant amount of things she was able to do, her humanity something of a hindrance when you're that far from the actual ground. While the ledge of the mountain where the Den was located was certainly big enough to move around, even to the point of getting away from everyone present if you wanted to be alone without going inside, her marked lack of upper body strength and claws made it to where that was just about the only place Kagome could go without the help of someone else.

When she did ask Kouga for something to do, even if it was small or less than pleasant, having never been good at sitting on her hands and doing nothing, the only thing he said in response was, 'we got it all covered, but there is literally never enough eyes on the cubs'.

A babysitter.

She had basically been relegated to a babysitter.

Under any other circumstance, that particular job was something she had no problem doing. She was great with kids, and the cubs seemed to have liked her on her first night, but within an hour of stepping outside during daylight hours, she discovered exactly why Kouga called the cubs 'little shits'.

As soon as the tiny hellions figured out they could go places she couldn't, the race was on, and it was to the amusement of everyone but Kagome. It wasn't that she didn't try, she did. It was that the little shits were actually little assholes, and she was out of candy to make them bend to her will. The only saving grace she had was Shippo, who could climb up the rock walls after the cubs.

By lunch on the second day, she had stressed herself out so much over the younger cubs, she was near tears, and Kouga finally took pity on her and pulled her aside while the cubs were eating. During the short conversation, he gave her a crash course on how life in a pack worked when it came to the rambunctious little bastards. He told her in no uncertain terms that if she acted like the omega, she would be treated like it, and no one listened to them, not even the cubs. With a grin and a chuckle, he explained that if she wanted the cubs to listen to her, she was going to have to make them, because they're cubs, and they don't listen to any fucking one they don't have to.

She asked him then if he would show her what to do, but he just winked at her before walking off and going back to what it was he was doing before he pulled her aside. While she glared at his back, she turned her attention back to the cubs as, one by one, they got up and started their games again. She did look to the mothers, who seemed perfectly content with allowing the children to do whatever they wanted, but with a shake of her head, she followed after the little ones and crossed her arms, looking back up to the higher cliffs where the kids decided was the greatest place ever to play.

The reason she didn't want the younger ones playing that far up was because there was nothing for them to catch themselves on if the lost their balance, and even though they were demons, that was a landing on solid rock. Clearly, others thought her unspoken fear was unfounded, but not an hour after they went up, a tail was stepped on, and the responding noise of pain caught the one that did it off guard enough for him to lost his grip, and fall he did. It was then she learned that even though it might not have looked like it, every single set of eyes were on the cubs, but the only one fast enough to catch the one that fell was Kouga, who jarred his shoulder in the process.

Though Kouga had turned blazing eyes up the cliff, it was Kagome that snapped at them, and when she did, every single cub listened.

"Get, your furry, fuzzy, little asses, down here." When they didn't move in a timely enough manner, she balled her fists and stomped her foot. " _Now!_ "

That had gotten them moving.

When little feet hit the ledge, every single one slinked past the pissed off miko, tails tucked under the weight of the stink eye she bestowed on them. It wasn't until the last one was off the rock wall she shook her head and went to make sure Kouga was alright after the clearly bad landing when he made the diving catch, who just smirked at her as he sent the cub on his way before popping his shoulder back where it belonged. He hadn't completely knocked it out of its socket, but when catching a kid, bracing for impact to avoid injury isn't really possible.

After the incident with the cubs, the entire pack, not just the three females she had become close with, treated her differently, and Kouga had watched over the change with a very critical eye.

If it wasn't something one was raised with, the dynamic of a wolf pack did come with something of a learning curve, but Kouga had given her everything she needed during their conversation her first full day on the cliffs, and reiterated when he told her how to deal with the cubs, when he told her actions were what mattered. Nothing was just given away. Everyone had to earn their place among the ranks, and she would be no different. It was why he didn't show her what to do. He didn't not do it to be an asshole. He didn't help her because he couldn't, not if he wanted he wanted her to be accepted by the rest of the pack.

Prior to her handling of the situation with the cubs, her presences was tolerated at best, which was normal for any female trying to join an established pack. Whether or not that's what happened in the end where was Kagome was concerned, she would still have to go through all the bullshit that entailed, either until, or after, that decision was made. It truly did not matter how Kouga felt about her. If she couldn't get the females of the pack behind her, if she did one day become he his mate, all she would be seen as is their alpha's female, which was drastically different than the pack's alpha female, and the one position he had absolutely no say in. He could force any wolf to submit to him, but he could not force their submission to someone else.

They had to do it themselves.

If Kagome couldn't prove herself a leader, and another female came along who could, the outcome wasn't really something Kouga wanted to think about. On top of a huge safety issue where his human was concerned, he would be expected to produce at least one male cub with that female to carry on the line of succession, which could lead to multiple attempts if female cubs were born first, but he didn't want any cubs at all that Kagome wasn't the mother of. The thought actually made him physically ill, but he couldn't do anything but wait and see if she either sank or swam.

But Kouga had the cunningness to outwit a fox, which was why he had her watching after the cubs. Getting the cubs to submit to her was both the fastest and easiest way to get the women to do so. He didn't lie when he said the little ones didn't listen to anyone but him and their respective mother, so if she could get the cubs to listen to her, she would be over halfway there.

Which was proven when she was able to get them off the rock face.

He had discovered why Kagome was placed where she was on her first night, but it had nothing to do with how she was seen by the women that first time. It was because the women knew how she was seen by _him_ , so they decided to put her on the raised rock so _he_ could see her better, not for any other reason. While the explanation at the time made him roll his eyes, he said nothing about it. Honestly, if he had truly been that concerned about her safety, he would have had her so completely surrounded by wolves no matter where she laid her head no one would have gotten within ten feet of her without losing a limb or two.

As an aside to that point, if the miko was ever his in any capacity, she would sleep next to him, period, end of statement, so it wouldn't matter. If she was 'just' his female, she would be in his bed, and if she found herself elevated to the pack's alpha female, he would sleep in hers. He didn't fucking care. As it was, for the three nights so far Kagome had been staying at the den, she had been sleeping in the main chamber with him, even though her pallet had been made up on the platform every night.

Which was where he had began to see the changes in how the females were treating the human, but even more shockingly, her kit.

It was the responsibility of everyone to protect their alpha female and her cubs, and after Kagome's commanding of the other cubs, that very night, Kouga noticed the women laid down in a much tighter formation around the platform in their chamber than they had the night before. The reason had nothing to do with Kagome, either, because she had already decided she wasn't sleeping there. Shippo, however, didn't want to sleep in the main chamber, which put him in the smaller one by himself. Normally, orphaned demon children were ignored, their fate left to the Kami over whether they lived or died, but because the women had seen Kagome treat the kit like he was her cub, _they_ treated the kit like he was her cub.

From what Kagome told him, the sleeping arrangements were more of a personal thing than they were anything. She did understand that she was basically living among animal minded creatures, but just one too many times she had turned around and saw two or more pairs having sex, and that night, she happened to see a couple of males follow those same women into the area where she was supposed to sleep, and she wasn't really a fan of the show, so to speak.

When it happened again the next day, Kagome had asked him about it, and he basically laughed at her.

" _It's just a rut; not really a big deal around here. When a female goes into heat, the clock is ticking for her to get pregnant, and it's a waste of time to go somewhere private."_

" _So, this happens all the time?"_

" _Pretty much, yeah. We're driven by instinct, Kagome, and if instinct says to fuck, we fuck. That's just how it is. We don't see it the same as humans do, and we certainly don't have the same aversion to an audience. Sex is sex and it's done for a purpose."_

" _Okay, so you don't do just to do it?"_

" _Of course we do it just to do it. I said it was done for a purpose, and sometimes that purpose is just because you're scratching an itch. We just don't care about privacy. As a matter of fact, just about the only time that comes into play is if the pair is newly mated. At that point, the male is driven by a completely different instinct, which is to protect what's now his. If that's not the case though, it happens where it happens._

" _Even in front of the cubs?"_

" _Even in front of the cubs. I told you, we don't look at sex the same way humans do, and as long as the cubs don't get too close, there's no cause for concern. Males get kind of snappy when they're in the middle of a rut, but as soon as their done, it's like it never happened. He'll walk away come back when she's ready for another round, or on a rare occasion, he'll hang around her for her entire heat and fight off other males, or he won't and a different male will take his place. As soon as her ass goes in the air, she's fair game to whoever gets there first."_

" _So, what you're saying is, a woman spends her heat getting raped by whoever happens by."_

" _Not even close. That's comparing us to humans, and human is the last thing we are. We are instinct driven demons evolved from instinct driven animals. Every female you see here can walk around naked all fucking day and no one will even look in her general direction, in heat or not. Can you say the same about human women?"_

" _No."_

" _When you're dealing with demons, it's whole different game with a whole new set of rules. Every race has their own way for females to show their interest in getting laid. Reptiles, for example, will literally crawl under a male reptile. Felines roll over onto their backs and show their bellies. Canines, like wolves, put their asses in the air. It all means the same thing. She wants to fuck. Rape is mostly a human horror that rarely happens in the demon world, because a female demon that's not in the mood or wants nothing to do with you will fuck you up."_

" _Good for her."_

" _Agreed. Now, as I said, rape in our world is rare, but it does happen, and the circumstance is always the same. A lone female, either already in heat or getting there, gets within scenting distance to a male of the same species, and upon actually seeing the male, the female decides he not worth her time, usually do to genetics, which she can tell through scent. It means she'll have a sickly cub to raise, and depending on her region of the land, a sickly cub is almost positive not to survive. However, shitty genetics or not, it is still a male demon she's dealing with, whose sole purpose is to carry on his line, with the physical ability to force her submission. While he may succeed, he's not walking away the same. In my pack, I don't tolerate that shit. If a female isn't in the mood or decides she doesn't want to run the risk of having a male's cubs for whatever reason, that's that, and he'll either back the fuck off or I'll throw his ass over the side of the cliff. The only male my females submit to is me and I'll kill anyone that tries to challenge that. They all know it, too."_

" _Your females?"_

" _My pack, my females. Unless they are mated, they're my responsibility. It's an alpha thing."_

The explanation had clearly taken the human off guard, but Kouga saw no reason to lie about it. Plus, he would be lying if he said he didn't find her discovery that literally as soon as the act was done, it was business as usual fucking hysterical. She had actually been talking to someone, who walked away from her, fucked someone, then went back after he was done and literally picked up the conversation where he left off, much to the young miko's pure abject horror.

Clearly, it was something akin her own personal Hell, but the result was she not only became very cautious of her actions and movements, but she would then plant her ass right next to Kouga, and wouldn't look anywhere but the ground or his eyes when she started to hear growling.

Another thing Kouga noticed over of those first couple of days was an obvious restructuring of the female ranks. The three women Kagome met on the first night, Eriko, Akimi, and Maeko, prior to Kagome making friends with them, had been relatively low within the female hierarchy. Now, however, they were being treated much better, and the handful who used to get preferential treatment that snubbed the miko when she arrived were starting to be snubbed themselves; something that no small amount of the other females thought they deserved.

As he watched the ripple effect Kagome's presence had on the pack, Kouga also saw what kind of effect the pack had on her. While there was still a noticeable level of heartbreak present, she didn't cry as much as she did when she first arrived, and though the cubs continued to dry hump her every last nerve, she would join in on their games every so often, much to their excitement. It hadn't been his intention for her to take the stress the little ones offered in spades onto her own shoulders, but once she stopped seeing the demon children as much more breakable human toddlers, she began to laugh at their antics along with everyone else, which _had_ been his intention. She did still snap at them when she saw something going on that clearly shouldn't be, but she didn't follow them around waiting for them to get hurt anymore.

The lessons she was learning by way of the cubs had also gotten her to lighten up on Shippo, which not surprising to any demon present, allowed him to blossom while he played with the cubs, because their 'games' weren't really games; they were teaching tools tailored to the learning abilities of children. Kouga noticed the kit's first morning at the den that he didn't know what he should for how old he was, which had nothing to do with Kagome's over-protectiveness, and everything to do with his lack of socialization when he was younger.

Foxes tended to have litters of kits, so Kouga would bet his entire territory Shippo wasn't actually an only child. Whether his siblings died after they were born or his mother died before she had her whole litter, that he didn't know, but what he could clearly tell was his father was far more interested in whether or not Shippo could use his magic than he was in whether or not the kit could defend himself or form any kind of meaningful bond with demons his own age.

While Shippo was a fast learner, he was also extremely socially awkward, and anytime one of the cubs got too close to him, his eyes would spark in near terror as he backed away in the most submissive manner Kouga had ever seen a male use. He was unable to tell the difference in social cues, not knowing when someone wanted to play or if they were actually looking for a fight, which the older cubs did do on occasion. For the fact Shippo's scent said he was almost fifty years old, he was a terrified little ball of fluff. His fall back was always flight, even if he would come out the clear winner in most of the altercations, and if the ookami was honest, it was fucking depressing to watch.

It had taken several hours that morning before Kouga just could not stand back and allow that kind of shit to continue any longer. He snagged the kit, pulled him off to the side, and spoke with him the same way he had numerous times before with a vast majority of the cubs. Actually being very good with kids, only ten minutes later, Kouga sent a much more confident Shippo back out to play. Kami bless the woman however, Kagome had that shit undone in no time flat, but as she began to calm down over her own situation, and finally realized Shippo wasn't actually as young as he looked, the kit was doing much better as far as standing his ground went.

Something else that never left Kouga's mind was the conversation he had with Kagome that first morning. Or, more specifically, the end of it. While kidnapping the woman again had crossed his mind many times over the last couple of years, there was no part of him that thought the mutt wouldn't once again come after her. She had something Inuyasha wanted, which was her ability to see and sense the Shikon shards. Without her, he wouldn't be able to collect them anymore, but it was because he knew that, the wolf was more than slightly curious what the fuck the dog was thinking.

Unlike everyone else, who was only focused on the length Inuyasha went to to get rid of Kagome, Kouga wanted to know _why_ he went to such a length. There _had_ to be more to it than what was said. He also wondered if whether or not kidnapping the girl again would have stopped this event from happening. If he would have taken her from Inuyasha again at any point over the years, and actually kept her from him as he knew he could, would she still be able to go back and forth to her own time?

There was, of course, also the secondary questioning of whether or not, if he had, if she would be his by now. At no point since he found her in the woods had she held him at the distance she used to. She didn't shy away from his touch like she had. If he was gone for part of the day, her eyes would light up when he returned. She just looked at him differently than she did before, and everyday that passed, the sidelong glances became more frequent as the distance she always kept herself from him got smaller. While he had no choice but to consider the fact part of that could have been in his head, there was no arguing the fact that, at night, she didn't just sleep in his bed to get away from the nightly activities; she slept wrapped up in his arms, and by her own choice.

He knew what he promised her, but damn it if he wasn't just this side of the line of begging for there to be no way to send Kagome back where she came from. The longer she was constantly around, the more receptive she appeared to be when it came to his offer, the less he wanted to exhaust all options before just giving up. He couldn't do that to her, but fuck if he didn't want to. There was a time where he not only could have, but absolutely would have. Now, however, he loved her too much to hurt her like that.

Besides, there was still a couple of more days before her friends returned, so there was still time to change her mind and get her to choose him over whatever long off shot they might find to undo whatever it was the dead bitch had done to her pathway to a time she told him he no longer existed.


	11. Chapter 11

Leaning on his shoulder against the opening of the cave, Kouga watched Kagome as she slept, his lips pursed and head tilted to the side. It was only just after dawn; not late enough in the morning for anyone but really the hunters to be awake, but light enough for the wolf's eyes to no longer shine as he looked inside. He had spent a good part of the day before away from the den, dealing with an issue that was brought to him to sort out, and hadn't returned before everyone turned in for the night. The only one still awake to greet him when he got back was Otto, the omega member of Shun's pack, and it wasn't but a handful of minutes later the animal turned in himself.

That was one of the most difficult night's sleep Kouga could remember having in a while, and an hour of tossing and turning, he gave up and in an attempt to keep from waking Kagome with his restlessness, he got back up. He ended up spending his night perched on an outcropping of rock, overlooking the mouth of the cave, his mind refusing to shut down. It plagued him with thoughts and images that came from both sides of the preverbal coin; pros and cons, so to speak, revolving around the situation with Kagome.

Being in the thick of things at the den, watching as she slowly immersed herself into his way of life, made it very difficult for him to remain objective enough to either not A, just flat out go back on his word or B, sabotage the whole fucking thing. The ten hours he spent away from the den and away from the sights and sounds of his pack accepting the onna might not have been a lot, but it was enough for him to take a small step back and begin to take the steps needed to keep his promise. Only one tangible idea came to mind, however, and that was to do the one thing he never did before.

Only for her would he actually use his Eastern Lord title to his advantage.

Before he returned to the den, he sent the wolves that were with him to the remaining points of the compass, calling upon the other three Cardinal Lords to meet in the only neutral ground between them, which was, ironically, the fucking Bone Eater's Well. It was dead center of the island, and the only place where all four demonic territories overlapped. It would take two days before his wolves returned with news of acceptance or denial to his request from the Lords of the North and South, but if he was honest, he wasn't overly hopeful.

Of the four, Kouga was the most elusive. He hardly ever went when he was called upon, so unlike the other three, there were no real ties to the other territories. He didn't have unrealistic expectations of them, and he didn't have the kind of relationships with them they had with each other. When it came to demonic duties, he mostly kept his nose down, only really concerned with his own region of the land, and not really caring about the other ones. He had always been far more interested in kind of trouble he could get into, or cause if the mood struck, than he was dealing with demon politics.

Kouga got his title the same way they did, it was inherited. However, unlike them, he wasn't raised to rule. He was raised to lead. Growing up, he never really understood the difference, but there was a big one. The lords of the North and South were the prime examples of the difference. Kouga was on the front lines, knee deep in whatever was going on while they sat on their fat, lazy asses and had everyone else do their dirty work, which is fine when you're a female that is clearly terrified of breaking a claw or something. It was ridiculous for a male who was able bodied and perfectly capable of defending his own lands.

Maybe it was just a canine thing because he knew the Western Lord did, in fact, walk his lands and defend them against bullshit, but the Cat of the North and the Snake of the South showed it was clearly not a nobility thing.

The rest of his night was spent trying to figure out how he was going to explain to Kagome she was possibly going to have to cough up her actual origins if she ever wanted to return to them. Kouga didn't fuck with magic. Nothing good ever came from it, so he had absolutely no idea if anything could actually be done to undo it. He knew what the monk said, but the monk had then turned around and exposed himself as a fuckwit, so Kouga was far less inclined to actually believe him. Besides, demons were the creators of dark magic, so if anyone would know how to undo it, it would be a demon.

Sighing through his nose, Kouga ran a hand down his face and pushed himself off his shoulder and picked his way through the sleeping bodies to his bed where the miko slept. Crouching down next to her, he placed his finger to his lips when Shun picked up his head, and then set his hand on Kagome's shoulder. Giving her a gentle shake, he waited for her to eyes to open and smiled at her when she did. Her dark brown eyes were glossed over, but she nodded slightly when he prompted her to stay quiet.

Kagome, having no idea what was going on, slowly climbed to her feet when she saw Kouga crook a finger at her, looking around when she was standing. Keeping her voice down when she saw everyone still asleep, she quietly cleared her throat. "What's going on? What time is it?"

Setting his hands on Kagome's hips when she swayed slightly, Kouga glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping men and hummed as he looked back. "It's sunrise, and I need to talk to you away from here."

More awake than she was a moment ago, Kagome blinked. "But what about Shippo?"

Cutting his eyes to Shun, he tilted his head toward the smaller sleeping chamber, telling the animal without words to keep an eye on the kit before looking back at Kagome once the wolf was off to do as he was told. "He'll be fine, and we should be back by midday."

What he failed to mention was Kouga had heard back on one of those requests he sent, but he refused to allow any of the Lords on the cliffs. It wasn't because he didn't actually trust them, it was that he didn't know them, and no one was welcome at the den with the cubs present.

Because he failed to mention any of it, Kagome damn near pissed her pants an hour later and about twenty miles from the cliffs when Sesshoumaru showed up. The look she gave Kouga upon the Inu Lord's arrival was enough to make the wolf prince chuckle, and when she asked 'what the fuck', he laughed outright.

Looking down at her, Kouga grinned and crossed his arms. "I promised you I would do whatever was necessary to find out if there was anything that could be done, and I meant it. He knows more about this shit than I do."

Bottom lip between her teeth, Kagome's eyes slanted to the Western Lord for a short moment before she looked back at Kouga. "I don't know about this."

Kouga also glanced toward Sesshoumaru. "Sometimes, Kagome, when you really want something," returning his attention to Kagome, "you have to step outside your comfort zone to get it."

Showing patience he wasn't normally known for, Sesshoumaru merely stood where he landed, curious as to why his presence was requested by the Eastern Lord, of all people. There wasn't a relationship between the East and West to speak of. It wasn't that he and the wolf were on bad terms, it was they were on no terms at all, and there had been no indication over the time the prince has been in charge of the Eastern region he had any desire to change that. What held his curiosity more than the vague request, was that the miko that had been stuck to his brother's side like glue for the last three years was also present when he had been told she was dead.

While Kouga wasn't ignoring the Inu Lord, his focus was far more on the Miko and trying to get her to calm down. Turning to face her fully, he used both hands to cup her face, silencing her near immediately. Once she was looking in his eyes, Kouga lowered his voice. "Do you want to go home?" When she nodded slightly with a 'yeah', he leaned in closer to her, his nose nearly touching hers. "If you want to go home, you're going to have to trust me. You know I won't allow anything to happen to you."

Licking her lips, Kagome gave what he said a quick thought, and while she knew Kouga wouldn't let anything happen to her, Sesshoumaru had actively proved the exact opposite... more than once. Breaking eye contact by slanting hers to the side, she played with her fingers for a short moment before she sighed. "I know, but..."

Cutting her off, Kouga clicked his tongue. "I guarantee very little you say is going to be all that surprising." At the shock that flashed through Kagome's eyes, he pulled back slightly, released her face, and shrugged as he crossed his arms. "It's a pack thing. While there sure as hell isn't any love between him and the mutt, as the elder, it's his job to know what you and your friends have been up to because once the mutt took on the responsibility of your protection, regardless of how shitty that protection may have been, he brought you into their pack, of which Sesshoumaru is ultimately responsible for. Whether he's always in the loop, or gets periodic updates that brings him up to speed every now and then like I do when it comes to my pack, I'm positive he already knows most of what Shippo told me the other day. I'm also positive he doesn't care."

While Kagome digested that bomb of a piece of information, her eyes cut over to the Inu Lord, question swirling in her eyes over the truth of what Kouga had just told her. She couldn't understand how, if he knew she was from a different time, he wouldn't have let on, even slightly, over the course of the last couple of years. What little she actually knew of the demon, and not just what she was told, her secret was something that could absolutely be used to someone's advantage, and she would have figured if anyone was going to try and do something like that, Sesshoumaru was near the top of that list. Not as high as Naraku, but high enough where it wasn't something she wanted him to know.

For Sesshoumaru, he met the Miko's gaze head on, still saying and doing nothing. The wolf was mostly right in his assessment. There was very little he didn't know about her, but it wasn't because she palled around with his brother. He knew what he knew about her because of what happened in his father's tomb. He made it his mission to find out what it was about her that allowed her to pull that fang from its resting place when neither he nor Inuyasha had been able to do so. When it came to the sub pack his little brother created, that was more unseen protection on his part than anything else. However, he was still kept in the loop by other demon's they crossed paths with, known or unknown to them, because one thing the wolf was correct about was, ultimately, the members of the group were his responsibility.

Seeing neither confirmation or denial from Sesshoumaru to the accusations that were just laid out, Kagome returned her eyes to Kouga, who was waiting for her to say something. Buying herself another moment or two to think, she reached up and scratched the back of her head, debating her options. Okay, so Sesshoumaru might have known about her and the fact she wasn't from this time. For all she knew, he's known that for years, and never once attempted to use it against her. He didn't let on he knew, if Kouga was right and he did, but him knowing didn't mean he would care, in the slightest, Inuyasha had ensured she could never return to where, or more specifically when, she actually belonged. Not only did it not mean he would care she was stuck 500 years before she was born, but it also didn't mean he would be slightly interested in helping to find out not only what it was Kikyo did, but if there was a way to undo it.

She knew she only had two options, involve Sesshoumaru or don't, but she wasn't sure which one would be better. It would certainly be amazing if he knew what she needed to do to get home, but at the same time, the Western Lord was just about the most unapproachable son of a bitch Kagome had ever fucking met. He scared the actual shit out of her, and she didn't have even one single memory involving that demon that didn't end with screaming and running for her life.

But... to be fair...

One of those times she was screaming because of Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru came to her defense when he didn't really have to. He stayed between her and Inuyasha's inner demon long enough for her to figure out how to get the hanyou to calm down and beat back the beast.

Kagome had learned quite a bit about canine demons over the curse of her stay at the Den, and from what she was able to conclude from that was, Kouga had made a valid point about this pack thing and Sesshoumaru extending his protections to her. She wouldn't go as far as to say he liked her, but it had been a while since the last time he tried to kill her.

In the end, it was more the air of indifference Sesshoumaru showed than anything else that had Kagome sighing with a nod of her head, her arms crossing loosely over her chest. "Okay." Looking back at Kouga, there was a sardonic smile on her lips. "Not like this can get any worse, right?"

Rolling his eyes, Kouga snorted. "That's my woman; always looking on the bright side of things."

Making a face at the statement, Kagome finally then turned to look fully at Sesshoumaru, though she made no move to get any closer as she looked up at him through her lashes. "If it works better for you, instead of me giving you the whole three year story, you tell me what you know, and I'll fill in the blanks."

For a long moment, Sesshoumaru regarded the miko before him, staying silent. When he did speak, it wasn't in response to what she said. "I trust somewhere in your recount you'll explain how it is you are still among the living when I was told you were dead."

It was almost like she was punched in the face the way she jerked back from the blunt statement. "Who told you I was dead?"

The inu's face looked as if the answer was obvious. "Inuyasha."

 ***X***

Sitting on a rock, Kagome could do nothing but blink by the time Sesshoumaru was done telling her what all he knew of her and her friends. She wasn't sure if she was more shocked at how much he actually knew, or if her shock was because of how much he spoke, but in the end, when she found her voice, she couldn't help what came out of her mouth. "Did you stalk us?"

Kagome also knew the moment it registered with him that, while he had never heard the word 'stalk' nor did he know exactly what it meant, he figured out it was a bad thing. He said nothing, but he didn't have to; his face said it clearly enough.

Scrubbing her face with her hands, Kagome then pressed the tips of her fingers into her temples as she looked at him. "How do you know all of that? I barely remember most of it, and I was physically there."

Leaning back against the stone behind him, Sesshoumaru crossed his arms. "A demon's memory is far more vast than that of a human. I have crystal clear memories of over two hundred years ago, however that is hardly of any consequence. I know what I know of you by simply being in the right place at the right time, and the rest came as it did from Myoga."

Jolting like she was kicked in the ass, Kagome's eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets at the mention of the flea demon. "Myoga? He reports to you?" At Sesshoumaru's nod, she huffed and crossed her arms. "I was under the impression he was to Inuyasha like what Jaken is to you. Ya know... the fact the flea is a little scaredy cat aside, of course."

Barely lifting a shoulder in an unnoticed shrug, Sesshoumaru looked at his claws. "Your impression of a situation, no matter how right, or in this case how very wrong," lifting his eyes to hers, "is hardly a concern of mine. My concern lies solely with the physical safety of those that are seen to be part of my pack. I know a great many things that have me questioning the mental safety and stability of those that followed the whelp, but so long as there is no issue with physical harm at his claws, I have always thought it best to stay out of the affairs of your little band of misfits."

Nose wrinkling at the very blunt explanation, Kagome grunted. "Fair enough."

Before the two words were fully out of her mouth, she already felt her throat closing up, knowing what she was going to have to once again acknowledge. It was never far from her mind. How could it be? Sure, there were times where she was able to focus on something else, and Kouga and the rest of the tribe did their best to keep her as occupied as they could, only Kouga knowing the reason why. It helped, sure, but it only helped in the moment. Once the moment was gone, the severity of her situation would come crashing back down, and she would excuse herself from the goings on until she was able to get her emotions back under control. She was finally past spending the majority of her time in tears, and she was able to sleep most of the night.

That, though, was almost exclusively because of Kouga.

He made her a lot of promises that first day he brought her to the cliff, and so far, he's kept every single one of them. The only one he hadn't was the only one he really couldn't, but Kagome supposed that was why Kouga made the decision to bring Sesshoumaru into the fray. He had promised her if there was a way to get her home he would find it, no matter what it was he had to do. He reiterated that promise not an hour ago when Sesshoumaru showed up.

Eyes slanting to the wolf himself, Kagome sighed as she slid her fingers into her hair, scratching at her scalp as she swallowed hard and cleared the lump from her throat. "Well, doesn't sound like you're missing all that much; just about the last month, but the only thing of importance happened a couple of days ago.

"We, my friends and I, were making our way toward that... you know the gorge that's like a half a day's walk from the eastern edge of Inuyasha's Forest?" At Sesshoumaru's nod, Kagome continued. "Well, we heard from some travelers about them seeing giant bugs down at the bottom of the gorge, and the first thing that came to mind was Naraku. So, we changed direction and headed that way. Since we were closer to the western border than the eastern side, it was going to take a couple of days to get there.

"We were still in the forest when we came under attack by some kind of bug. I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be; it was too distorted by the shard of the Shikon it swallowed. At the time I didn't notice, but looking back on it, it seemed like it took longer than it normally did for a demon with only one shard."

Pausing a moment, Kagome then shook her head, eyes lowering to the ground. "Right in the middle of the fight with this thing, Inuyasha just... ran away. He ran away when he was needed the most, leaving the rest of us to take care of whatever it was that ate a Shikon shard." Lifting her now distant eyes, she looked at Sesshoumaru. "I killed it, and we got the shard, so it didn't end as bad as it could have, I guess. The rest of us veered off course because when I shot the bug, it... exploded and we needed a bath. So, after we got cleaned up and Inuyasha still hadn't shown back up, we decided to wait for him at the village that's not far from the edge of the forest. When he still hadn't resurfaced by the time night fell, which was several hours later, we bedded down for the night, agreeing that we would continue on our way to the gorge in the morning, figuring he would be back by that point."

It was then her face went hard, but her eyes filled with tears. "He showed up when we were just outside the village, and he had Kikyou with him. That in itself wasn't all that shocking. I knew where he went when he left. It's pretty clear he forgets I can actually feel her when she's close. I guess that isn't really important, though. Um... I knew something was even more wrong than it looked just by his face. He asked what I was doing there, and when I said I was waiting for him to show back up, he started yelling about how I wasn't supposed to be there, that I was supposed to have gone home like I always did when he did something messed up."

It was then her voice cracked and the tears that had been welling up slipped from the corner of her eyes. Whether she still wasn't in a place to accept what happened yet, or she had it in her mind if she didn't say it it didn't happen, neither demon present knew, but the fact remained, as the seconds mounted and ticked by, it was becoming clear she wasn't going to be able to finish.

Sesshoumaru flicked his eyes to Kouga, who frowned deep with a sigh as he shook his head. "From what I gathered from the kit, while everyone was waiting for the mutt to resurface, he had his little bitch seal the well, effectively trapping Kagome here on this side while trying to trap her on the other side to avoid having to choose between a living person and a dead one."

There was an instant pulse in the Inu Lord's temple, and he was only barely able to stop himself from lifting a hand to rub it away. Being suspicious by nature, there was a part of him, though admittedly very small, that initially questioned the validity of the claims. At the same time, those suspicions were easy to quelsh by mere common sense. Ever since the day Inuyasha met the now dead Miko, the pup's common sense had become nearly non-existent. No matter how ridiculous, desperate, or impossible the dead one's ideas were, Inuyasha was drawn into whatever bullshit plan that female cooked up. Sesshoumaru wasn't sure it if was due to a misplaced sense of allegiance, guilt, or some twisted idea of love, but when that woman opened her mouth, Inuyasha went deaf to everyone and everything else.

Glancing back at the now ugly crying young miko, Sesshoumaru quietly clicked his tongue, though he said nothing for another few minutes. Instead, he allowed himself enough time to cover the situation from every angle, feeling that if there was a even the slightest possibility it wasn't what it looked it, he owed his brother, at the very least, the benefit of the doubt. However, there was very little doubt the Miko in front of him was willing to do the same. While he couldn't blame her for taking what was said at face value having no reason to question the truth of what she was told, Sesshoumaru, having no skin in the game, was able to see the situation from a distance, and ask the one question no one had thought to answer.

"Has the Miko had the opportunity to check the well?"

If he was shocked at the surprise that flashed through Kouga's eyes at the simple question, he didn't show it. Sesshoumaru also kept all accusation from his voice in the face of the sheer level of upset from the onna and also to avoid any escalation of the level of over-protectiveness the wolf prince was known to have for the woman. Nothing good could possibly come from upsetting the miko more than she was, nor was there anything to gain by pissing off her new protector.

Sesshoumaru merely nodded once at Kouga's response of 'no', and the short explanation that the little miko has been at the den since shortly after Inuyasha and the dead one made the declaration, but that was where the other two lords were also told to meet them if they were inclined to do so.

Turning his golden eyes on the onna herself, he made an internal groan at her wet eyes looking back at him with a level of hope he knew he needed to dim, and more than just slightly. Turning to face her fully, Sesshoumaru showed a level of humility and care he never showed anyone but his young human ward. Lacing his fingers between his thighs as he looked Kagome in the eyes, he kept his voice level yet commanding. "I do not ask such things to raise your hope, Onna. You must be prepared to find Inuyasha's words true. However, before time and very precious resources are spent looking for a way to undo what has been done, it is only wise to first ensure there is something needing undone."

He continued to look Kagome in the eyes, watching as her thoughts flashed through them as clearly as if she spoke them out loud. While somewhat loathed to do so, he would have to give the human credit where she deserved it. She tried very hard to squash the hope she was feeling at the prospect Inuyasha hadn't done what he said he did; that he wouldn't have actually done something so horrible to her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wap her mind around the fact that Inuyasha had intentionally done something like this, so she couldn't help the bubbling hope that he actually didn't. The inu could understand her position on the matter, but he didn't want those hopes too high because, while there may have been a small chance the well would allow the miko passage, there was still the question as to why the whelp would say otherwise if it wasn't true.

Allowing that thought to take hold of his own mind, Sesshoumaru made a mental note to not actually allow the miko to jump into the abyss of the Bone Eater's Well, because he couldn't shake the feeling that should she do so, something untoward would happen.

Kouga stood there watching Sesshoumaru and Kagome almost have a staring contest, his own thoughts swirling with Sesshoumaru's innocent question. No, it hadn't crossed his mind to check to see if the mutt was lying about the well, but at the same time, even with it out there now, he still wasn't sure it was a good idea. The dog hadn't seen how distraught Kagome was when he came across her in the forest, and he was pretty damn positive if she found out, without a shadow of a doubt the well was sealed, she would break completely.


End file.
